The first ducks noticed by the Esquimaux were mentioned to us on the 16th, and a few days afterward immense flocks appeared, all of the king-duck species, about the open water near the margin of the ice; but our distance from this was so great, that we never saw any of them, and the weather was yet too cold to station a shooting-party in that neighbourhood.  Dovekies were now also numerous, and a gull or two, of the silvery species, had been seen.

On the 20th, after divine service, I took the opportunity of Captain Lyon and his people being on board the Fury, to communicate to the assembled officers and ships’ companies my intentions respecting the future movements of the expedition; at the same time requesting Captain Lyon to furnish me with a list of any of the Hecla’s men that might volunteer to remain out, as it would be necessary to fill up, or, perhaps, even to increase the complement of the Fury.

Our preparations were therefore immediately commenced, a twelvemonths’ provision and other stores being received by the Fury, and various necessary exchanges made in anchors, cables, and boats; and, in the course of a single fortnight, the whole of these were transported from ship to ship without any exposure or labour to the men outside their respective ships, our invaluable dogs having performed it for us with astonishing ease and expedition.  It was a curious sight to watch these useful animals walking off with a bower-anchor, a boat, or a topmast, without any difficulty; and it may give some idea of what they are able to perform, to state, that nine dogs of Captain Lyon’s dragged sixteen hundred and eleven pounds a distance of seventeen hundred and fifty yards in nine minutes, and that they worked in a similar way between the ships for seven or eight hours a day.  The road was, however, very good at this time, and the dogs the best that could be procured.

The wind settling to the southward for a few days near the end of April, brought an increased, and, to us a comfortable degree of warmth; and it was considered an event of some interest, that the snow which fell on the 29th dissolved as it lay on our decks, being the first time that it had done so this season.  We now also ventured to take off some of the hatches for an hour or two in the day, and to admit some fresh air, a luxury which we had not known for six months.  The Esquimaux, about this time, began to separate more than before, according to their usual custom in the spring; some of them, and especially our Winter Island acquaintance, setting off to the little islands called Oolglit, and those in our neighbourhood removing to the northeast end of Igloolik, to a peninsula called Keiyuk-tarruoke, to which, the open water was somewhat nearer.  These people now became so much incommoded by the melting of their snow-huts, that they were obliged to substitute skins as the roofs, retaining, however, the sides and part of the passages of the original habitations.  These demi-tents were miserable enough while in this state, some of the snow continually falling in, and the floor being constantly wet by its thawing.