. Arctic explorations: the second Grinnell expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, 1853, '54, '55. water among the , frozen at once into a solid mass, might behard enough, we hoped, to resist the claws of thepolar bear. We found to our surprise that we were not the firsthuman beings who had sought a shelter in this deso-late spot. A few ruined walls here and there showedthat it had once been the seat of a rude settlement;and in the little knoll which we cleared away to coverin our storehouse of valuables, we found the mortalremains of their former inhabitants. Nothing can be imag
. Arctic explorations: the second Grinnell expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, 1853, '54, '55. water among the , frozen at once into a solid mass, might behard enough, we hoped, to resist the claws of thepolar bear. We found to our surprise that we were not the firsthuman beings who had sought a shelter in this deso-late spot. A few ruined walls here and there showedthat it had once been the seat of a rude settlement;and in the little knoll which we cleared away to coverin our storehouse of valuables, we found the mortalremains of their former inhabitants. Nothing can be imagined more sad and homelessthan these memorials of extinct life. Hardly a ves-tige of growth was traceable on the bare ice-rubbedrocks; and the huts resembled so much the broken ESQUIMAUX GRAVES. 5] fragments that surrounded them, that at first sight itwas hard to distinguish one from the other. Wahusbones lay about in all directions, showing that thisanimal had furnished the staple of subsistence. Therewere some remains too of the fox and the narwhal;but I found no siscns of the seal or ESQUIMAUX RUINED H U T S — L I F E ? B O A r COVE. These Esquimaux have no mother earth to receivetheir dead; but they seat them as in the attitude ofrepose, the knees drawn close to the body, and enclosethem in a sack of skins. The implements of the livingman are then grouped around him; they are coveredsvitli a rude dome of stones, and a cairn is piled simple cenotaph will remain intact for generationafter generation. The Esquimaux never disturb agrave. From one of the graves I took several perforated 52 ESQUIMAUX IMPLEMENTS. and rudely-fashioned pieces of walrus ivory, evidentlyparts of sledge and lance gear. But wood must havebeen even more scarce with them than with thenatives of Baffins Bay north of the Melville glacier.
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