Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/312

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
MORE RELICS.
293

On the following day, July 14th, we started for Kodlunarn, where we remained till the 17th, during which time I occupied myself in making researches for relics, investigating all that I could which had a bearing upon the subject, besides making a complete survey of the island. These days of hard work resulted in the discovery of additional relics, confirming me in the opinions I had previously formed, and which I have elsewhere in this work expressed. In addition to what I had done before, I found very clear evidences of the existence of a blacksmith forge or a furnace. I must not omit to say here that the Esquimaux women and children, and occasionally the men, aided me greatly while on Kodlunarn, searching for and securing relics. The men were obliged to be off, most of the time, sealing and hunting tuktoo for our subsistence.

Our tupics were close by the place that we called the "ship's trench" (see Plan No. 1 on Chart Sheet), and occasionally, as I have said, all hands were engaged with me in gathering Frobisher relics. One may get a good idea of our appearance when so engaged from the accompanying engraving.

The following list is an extract from the catalogue that accompanied the Frobisher relics which I sent to the British government, through the Royal Geographical Society of London, shortly after my return to the States, and embraces twenty articles that were inclosed in a small black-velvet-lined box, lettered J, which, with all that I sent, have been deposited by the British government in the Greenwich Hospital Museum, the same institution in which the Franklin relics are to be seen. The unabridged list comprised 136 separate parcels.