That night, after the igloo was closed and we were eating our evening
meal, we heard a sled drive up to the door and supposed our fish had
arrived; but what was our joy when we recognized Koumania's voice
driving the dogs, and then heard Henry at the door of our igloo. We
then learned that they had reached the Dangerous Rapids only that
afternoon, and while building the igloos the three young men we had
seen in the morning returned and reported having seen us up the river.
As soon as Henry heard this he had the load dumped from one of the
sleds, and took Koumania to drive and an Ooqueesiksillik native as
guide, and came at once to report. He said it had been very difficult
to get his party of natives away from the camps that they met daily,
and that they had moved by portages, which doubled the distance. He had
bought dog food of the natives all along the route, and his dogs were,
consequently, in good order. They would remain in camp where they were
a day or two to feed up the dogs and get what fish they wanted for his
two sleds, and then join us on the 10th.
About five miles inland from Starvation Cove the natives had found
during the summer the skeleton of a white man which no one had ever
seen before. On the way down, Henry visited the place and erected a
monument over the remains. The pieces of clothing found indicated that
deceased was a sailor, not an officer. The finding of this grave is
worthy of notice, as showing that the natives were thoroughly aroused
by our visit and its object. We had promised them liberal rewards for
everything of importance found, and for valuable information--that is,
anything new--and were always particular to keep our promises. The
consequence was that they had greatly aided us by searching everywhere
within reach of their camps or hunting grounds. In approaching the
Dangerous Rapids from Cockburn Bay, Henry had found an island where on
the Admiralty chart is marked a point of the mainland. In fact, there
is a delta at the mouth of the river. Narleyow led them to a place in
the branch of the river flowing to the westward of this island, where
he said a rocky ridge froze to the bottom, making a pocket which held
fish. They dug four holes within an area of ten feet, and in one day
caught fifty-seven of the immense salmon for which this river is
famous. He cooked one for us, which was the largest I ever saw. Joe
measured the cross-section of one he saw in the native igloos below our
camp that measured over one foot. I asked him how much over, but he
couldn't tell, he said, as his pocket measure was "only a foot long".
[Illustration: VIEW ON BACK'S RIVER.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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