This information having excited considerable interest, Lieutenant Hoppner, who had taken great pains to ascertain the facts correctly, volunteered his services to accompany some of the Esquimaux, who were said to be going northward very shortly, and to obtain every information on this and other subjects which might be within the scope of such a journey.  On the night of the 4th, having heard that a party of the Esquimaux intended setting out the following morning, Lieutenant Hoppner and his people went out to their tents to be in readiness to accompany them.  We were surprised to find the next day, that not only Lieutenant Hoppner’s intended guide, but the whole of the rest of these people, had altogether left the island, and, as it afterward proved, permanently for the summer.  We were now, therefore, for the first time since our arrival here, entirely deserted by the natives, only two or three of whom again visited the ships during the remainder of our stay.  It appears probable, indeed, that these wandering people are in the habit of residing at their various stations only at particular intervals of time, perhaps with the intention of not scaring the walruses and seals too much by a very long residence at one time upon the same spot.  What made this appear still more likely was the present state of their winter habitations at Igloolik, which, though offensive enough at about the same time the preceding year, were then wholesome and comfortable in comparison.  Besides quantities of putrid walrus flesh, blubber, and oil, carcasses of dogs, and even of human beings recently deceased, were now to be seen exposed in their neighbourhood.  What remained of the corpse of Keim=o=oseuk was of course wholly uncovered; a second, of a child, on which the wolves had feasted, was also lying about; and a third, of a newly-born infant, was discovered in the middle of a small lake by Mr. Richards, who caused them all to be buried under ground.

Our stock of meat for the dogs being nearly expended, and no seahorses having yet been seen near the shore, I sent Mr. Ross with a sledge to Tern Island on the 13th, in expectation of being supplied by the Esquimaux.  Mr. Ross returned on the 14th without success, the whole of the natives having left the island after plundering the birds’ nests, as they had done the preceding year.

Finding that our valuable dogs must be now wholly dependant on our own exertions in providing meat, a boat from each ship was carried down to the neighbourhood of the open water, and shortly afterward two others, to endeavour to kill walruses for them.  This was the more desirable from the probability of the Fury’s passing her next winter where no natives were resident, and the consequent necessity of laying in our stock for that long and dreary season during the present summer.  Our people, therefore, pitched their tents near the old Esquimaux habitations; and thus were four boats constantly employed, whenever the weather would permit, for the three succeeding weeks.