Their Spears,
Headed With Bone And Many Small Articles Of The Same Material, Were
Worked With Extreme Neatness, As Well As Their Wooden Dishes And Cooking
Utensils Of Stone, And Several Articles, Very Elegantly Formed Of Bone,
Were Evidently Intended For Some Game, But Augustus Was Unacquainted With
Their Use.
We took from this deposit four seal-skins to repair our shoes
and left in exchange a copper-kettle, some awls and beads.
We paddled all day along the coast to the eastward on the inside of a
crowded range of islands and saw very little ice; the blink of it however
was visible to the northward, and one small iceberg was seen at a
distance. A tide was distinguishable among the islands by the foam
floating on the water but we could not ascertain its direction. In the
afternoon St. Germain killed on an island a fat deer which was a great
acquisition to us; it was the first we had seen for some months in good
condition.
Having encamped on the main shore after a run of thirty-seven miles we
set up a pole to ascertain the rise and fall of the water, which was
repeated at every halting-place, and Hepburn was ordered to attend to the
result. We found the coast well covered with vegetation of moderate
height, even in its outline, and easy of approach. The islands are rocky
and barren, presenting high cliffs of a columnar structure. I have named
the westernmost group of those we passed Berens' Isles in honour of the
Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, and the easternmost Sir Graham
Moore's Islands.
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