Mr. Fisher reported, on his return, that he had followed the stream between three and four miles, where it turned to the southwest, without discovering any indications of a wooded country; but a sufficient explanation respecting the birch-bark was perhaps furnished by his finding, at the distance of a quarter of a mile from the sea, a piece of whalebone two feet ten inches in length and two inches in breadth, having a number of circular holes very neatly and regularly perforated along one of its edges, which had undoubtedly formed part of an Esquimaux sledge.  This circumstance affording a proof of the Esquimaux having visited this part of the coast at no very distant period, it was concluded that the piece of bark above alluded to had been brought hither by these people.  From the appearance of the whalebone, it might have been lying there for four or five years.  That none of the Esquimaux tribe had visited this part of the coast since we landed there in 1818, was evident from the flagstaff then erected still remaining untouched.  Mr. Fisher found every part of the valley quite free from snow as high as he ascended it:  and the following fact seems to render it probable that no great quantity either of snow or sleet had fallen here since our last visit.  Mr. Fisher had not proceeded far, till, to his great surprise, he encountered the tracks of human feet upon the banks of the stream, which appeared so fresh that he at first imagined them to have been recently made by some natives, but which, on examination, were distinctly ascertained to be the marks of our own shoes, made eleven months before.

CHAPTER II.

Entrance into Sir James Lancaster’s Sound of Baffin.—­Uninterrupted Passage to the Westward.—­Discovery and Examination of Prince Regent’s Inlet.—­Progress to the Southward stopped by Ice.—­Return to the Northward.—­Pass Barrow’s Strait, and enter the Polar Sea.

We were now about to enter and to explore that great sound or inlet which has obtained a degree of celebrity beyond what it might otherwise have been considered to possess, from the very opposite opinions which have been held with regard to it.  To us it was peculiarly interesting, as being the point to which our instructions more particularly directed our attention; and I may add, what I believe we all felt, it was that point of the voyage which was to determine the success or failure of the expedition, according as one or other of the opposite opinions alluded to should be corroborated.  It will readily be conceived, then, how great our anxiety was for a change of the westerly wind and swell, which, on the 1st of August, set down Sir James Lancaster’s Sound, and prevented our making much progress.  Several whales were seen in the course of the day, and Mr. Allison remarked that this was the only part of Baffin’s Bay in which he had ever seen young whales; for it is a matter of surprise to the whalers in general, that they seldom or never meet with young ones on this fishery, as they are accustomed to do in the seas of Spitzbergen.