Barrow Strait

“ Near Cape Seppings, and some distance beyond it to the southward, we noticed a narrow stratum of some very white substance, the nature of which we could not at this time conjecture. I may here remark that the whole of Barrow’s Strait, as far as we could see to the N.N.E. of the islands, was entirely free from ice; and from whatever circumstance it may proceed, I do not think that this part of the Polar Sea is at any season very much encumbered with it. ”

“ We have drifted 18 miles to the W. in the last week; therefore our neighbors, the icebergs, are not always aground, but even when afloat drift more slowly than the light ice. There is a water-sky to the W. and N.W.; it is nearest to us in the direction of Cape York; could we only advance 12 or 15 miles in that direction, I am convinced we should be free to steer for Barrow Strait. Forty-three seals have been secured for the dogs; one dog is missing, the remaining twenty-nine devoured their two days' allowance of seal's flesh (60 or 65 lbs.) ”

“ THE DISCOVERIES OF DEASE AND SIMPSON Meanwhile the exploration of the shores of Northern America was proceeding apace. At the time when the Terror sailed for Hudson’s Strait the situation was this. Beechey, starting from the west, had mapped out the coast as far as Point Barrow. No white man had yet examined the coast from Point Barrow to Return Reef, a matter of some 150 miles. ”

“ There is no relative motion in the floes of ice, except a gradual closing together, the small spaces and streaks of water being still further diminished. The temperature has fallen, and is usually below the freezing-point. I feel most keenly the difficulty of my position; we cannot afford to lose many more days. Of all the voyages to Barrow Strait, there are but two which were delayed beyond this date, viz., Parry's in 1824, and the 'Prince Albert's' in 1851. ”

“ A gale of wind from the southward occurred, and I was extremely anxious to see whether it would bring over the ice from the opposite shore, as the croakers in Assistance Harbour, unable to deny the existence of water along the north shore of Barrow's Strait, consoled themselves by declaring that the floe had merely formed itself into pack, and was now lying along the coast of North Somerset, ready at an hour's warning to spread itself over the waters. ”

“ As the breeze freshened in the course of the day, a great deal of loose ice in extensive streams and patches came drifting down from the Leopold Islands, occasioning us some trouble in picking our way to the northward. By carrying a press of sail, however, we were enabled, towards night, to get into clearer water, and by four A.M. on the 1st of September, having beat to windward of a compact body of ice which had fixed itself on the lee shore about Cape York, we soon came into a perfectly open sea in Barrow’s Strait, and were enabled to bear away to the eastward. ”

“ More than any other man not actually employed in its operations, he had contributed to the splendid results obtained in the nineteenth century. Point Barrow, Cape Barrow, and Barrow Straits, in the polar seas, attest the estimation in which his friendship was held by the explorers of his time; and in the interior of the Ulverston monument their names are appropriately engraven with his own. On retiring Sir John asked for favours for only two men. ”

“ Our arrival at Cape Smyth and vicinity of Point Barrow was on the 29th of July, the Bear having arrived on the 27th, the Saturday previous. While we were lying at anchor engaged in the erection of the house of refuge, the rest of the whaling fleet, both sail and steam, gradually arrived and came to anchor off the coast, reaching from Cape Smyth to Point Barrow. After a short stay the steamers went on to the eastward of Point Barrow, following along the ice-pack, which was in sight from Point Barrow, until they reached the heavier ice off Point Tangent. ”

“ In 1818 Sir John Barrow, who did much for scientific Arctic exploration, secured the passage of a law in England offering $100,000 to any one who would find the Northwest Passage, and $25,000 to any one who should reach the 89th parallel of latitude. This stimulated the search. The expeditions of Ross, Parry, and Franklin made trips which, although not successful to the degree of winning the reward, added much to the knowledge of the Arctic regions. ”

“ The coast from Refuge Inlet runs nearly straight in a generally northeast direction to Point Barrow, and consists of steep banks of clay, gravel, and pebbles, in appearance closely resembling glacial drift, bordered by a narrow, steep beach of pebbles and gravel, and broken at intervals by steep gulleys which are the channels of temporary streams running only during the period of melting snow, and by long, narrow, and shallow lagoons, to whose edges the cliffs slope gradually down, sometimes ending in low, steep banks. ”

“ Kumlien, Contrib., p. 26 (Cumberland Gulf, aged women chiefly) ; Boas, “Central Eskimo,” p. 561; Chappell, “Hudson Bay,” p. 60 (Hudson Strait) ; Back, Journey, etc., p. 289 (Great Fish River) ; Franklin, 1st Exped., vol. 2, p. 183 (Coppermine River) ; 2d Exped., p. 126 (Point Sabine) ; Petitot, Monographie, etc., p. xv (Mackenzie district) ; Dall, “Alaska,” pp. 140, 381 (Norton Sound, Diomede Islands, and Plover Bay) ; Petroff, Report, etc., p. 139 (Kadiak) ”

“ The whole surface of the land is exceedingly wet in summer, except the higher knolls and hillsides, and for about 100 yards back from the edge of the cliffs. The thawing, however, extends down only about a foot or eighteen inches. Beyond this depth the ground is perpetually frozen for an unknown distance. There are no streams of any importance in the immediate neighborhood of Point Barrow. On the other hand, three of the rivers emptying into the Arctic Ocean between Point Barrow and the Colville, which Dr. ”

“ It is much more likely, considering the custom in Greenland, that this is the reason for having the festival at this season than that the time should be selected by the people at Point Barrow as a season when “hunting or fishing can not well be attended to,” as Simpson thinks. We should remember that this is the very time of the year that the seal netting is at its height at Point Barrow. See also Parry, Second Voyage, p. 538; Kumlien, Contributions, p. 43; Gilder, Schwatka’s Search, p. 43; Beechey, Voyage, p. 288 (Kotzebue Sound) ”

“ In hot haste then I made for the vicarage, ordered my horse, and returned towards the cliffs. The ship rode on, and I accompanied her way along the shore. She reached the offing of Bude Haven, and there grounded on the sand. No boatman could be induced to put off, and thick darkness soon after fell. I returned worn, heartsick, and weary on my homeward way; there strange tidings greeted me: the boat which we had watched so long had been rolled ashore by the billows, empty. Peter Barrow had hauled her above high-water mark, and had found a name, the Alonzo of Stockton-on-Tees, on her stern. ”

“ If then there exist a passage, it must be either through Baffin's Bay, or round by the north of Greenland, in the western hemisphere, or else through the Frozen Ocean, to the northward of Siberia, in the eastern; and on whichever side it lies, the navigator must necessarily pass through Beering's Strait. The impracticability of penetrating into the Atlantic on either side, through the strait, is therefore all that remains to be submitted to the consideration of the public. ”

“ The low rolling plain in the immediate vicinity of Point Barrow, which is all of the country that could be visited by our party when the land was clear of snow, presents the general appearance of a country overspread with glacial drift. ”

“ These flocks follow one another in rapid succession and keep the line of the coast, apparently striking straight across Peard Bay from the Seahorse Islands to a point 277 four or five miles below Utkiavwĭñ, and most of them fly up along the smooth shore-ice to Pernyû or Point Barrow. Some flocks always fly up among the hummocks of the land floe, and a few others turn eastward below the village and continue their course to the northeast across the land. ”

“ A considerable reef extends towards the main from its south-east side, where there is also a small islet: on the north-east side are three islets; the two outermost of which are low and rocky. The west coast of Barrow's Island was seen by the French, who thought it was part of the main; they named its north-west end, CAPE DUPUY, and its south end, CAPE POIVRE. At ten miles South 25 degrees West from the last cape, the French charts have assigned a position to a reef: and four miles North 10 degrees East from Cape Dupuy is another. ”

“ The north-west side is generally rugged and bare.
[Sidenote: Deep bay.]
[Sidenote: Barrow's Bay.]
There are two deep indentures, one on each side of the island; that on the west has at least one hundred fathoms depth, and appears to have no coral in it: while the eastern bight is extremely shallow, and is not only skirted by a broad fringe of coral, but has reefs in the centre ”

“ Forty years ago this was an insignificant fishing village; now Barrow has magnificent docks and a fine harbor protected by the natural breakwater of Walney Island, great iron-foundries and the largest jute-manufactory in the world; while it has recently also became a favorite port for iron shipbuilding. About two miles distant, and in a romantic glen called the Valley of Deadly Nightshade, not far from the sea, is one of the finest examples of mediæval church-architecture in England, the ruins of Furness Abbey, founded in the twelfth century by King Stephen and Maud, his queen. ”

“ Some of the northern passages were blocked up with ice, but everywhere else there was a clear sea among these islands. They are all of the trap formation, like those farther down the gulph. [2] Another traverse of ten miles extends to some islands on the eastern side, within fifteen miles of Cape Barrow. From thence we were favoured with a fine passage on an open sea; but there was a frequent fall of snow, the weather was cold and wintry, and we had some rough sailing during the dark nights. ”

“ The main pack was sighted on August 2, but M’Clure was fortunate enough to find open water to the south of it, and he was soon round Point Barrow and sailing in waters which had never been travelled by a ship before. Navigation was very far [Pg 139] from easy, for the sea was covered with detached floes which, driven onward by the wind, came charging down upon the ship with tremendous force, setting her aquiver from stem to stern, and often endangering the safety of her masts. ”

“ These appear to be closely related to the people of the first village below Wainwright Inlet, which is named Kĭlauwitawĭñ. At any rate, a party of them who came to Cape Smyth in the spring of 1883 were spoken of indifferently as Kuñmiun or Kĭlauwitawĭ ́ñmiun.
Small parties from all the villages occasionally visit Point Barrow during the winter for the purpose of trade and amusement, traveling with sledges along the land ice where it is smooth, otherwise along the edge of the cliffs ”

“ My wanderings had shown me that from the apparent sea coast to the base of that snowy chain of mountains which runs eastward from the Barbara Channel, there is much more water than land, and that a number of islands, lying near together, form the apparently connected coast; within which a wide sound-like passage extends, opening in places into bays and gulfs, where islands, islets, rocks and breakers, are very numerous. These waters wash the foot of the snowy chain which forms a continued barrier from the Barbara Channel to the Strait of Le Maire. ”

“ Why—in view of our experience in tripping there—trippers ever should come to Barrow, I cannot imagine. Why—after being fed by the grocer—they never should trip back to it. I can imagine very easily indeed! All that he had to offer us was a dusty regale of soda biscuit—that even in our famishing we rejected: aghast at the Sahara notion of eating such arid morsels away from even so small an oasis as ginger ale.
Being thus at the end of our rope, we went back to the chemist. He was not in the least responsible, of course, for the way that Barrow was starving us ”

“ Wednesday, October 2.—The men never reached the ship. Every one felt very anxious as Monday afternoon wore on. All the men were out but two. Soon after six o'clock when it was beginning to get dark we went on to the cliff. The wind was blowing so hard we could scarcely stand. We met Fred Swain, who said that the two boats were coming round the point from the east. By straining our eyes we could just dimly discern one boat. Hagan now joined us and we stood for some time watching it. It was making for Big Beach, so he and Graham ran off to Little Beach to get pieces of wood for its landing. ”

“ Behind the coast the eye wanders over interminable woody ranges of various heights, thrown together in irregular groups, called by the colonists Tiers. They are seldom separated by valleys of any width, but rather by gullies, and are generally covered with an impervious scrub. The most conspicuous points, in addition to Mount Cameron, are Mounts Barrow and Arthur, two peaks about 4,500 feet high, very much alike, and lying nine miles in a north-west direction from each other. Mount Barrow bears, from Launceston, East-North-East, thirteen miles. ”

“ Thursday, August 22.—Early this morning we were greeted by the news that a steamer was passing in the far distance and could just be discerned. The sea was far too rough for the men to think of going out. But it is something even to see a ship. Perhaps another will follow.
We are having quite a cold spell of weather with a bitter wind. After school I went down to the seashore to take some photographs, as there was a fine sea with rather grand effects.
Graham went for a walk on the shore this afternoon, taking little Jock, who unfortunately picked up a stinging fish ”