rain, and I took shelter under a flax bush, while they proceeded in another direction, and I lost sight of them. I now commenced another survey of this deserted spot, but saw nothing that I had not seen yesterday, except that I find they have made stone pathways here and there—no doubt the earth was so soft that they required them; we made similar ones at Epigwaitt—and over these walks the grass has shot up with more vigour than in other places: it is so thick and long that it is almost impossible to trace them. After wandering about for a couple of hours, I returned on board, bringing with me some specimens of rock and earth. I have just arrived on board. Cross and George have not yet returned.
8 p.m.—I had scarcely finished writing when Captain Cross came on board, and they informed us that they had found a man lying dead on shore, who had apparently died of starvation, and had evidently not been long dead, as flesh remained on his hands. They brought with them a slate—a common roof slate—on which were scratched some hieroglyphical zig-zags, which had no doubt been written by the deceased man, probably when dying, but which we found impossible to decipher any further than the Christian name, James. I reserve the slate, as some one will be able at least to make out the whole name. They had not disturbed anything about him further than removing an oil-coat which was lying over the upper part of the body. After dinner, Captain Cross, George Wheeler, George Harris, and myself went ashore to see and examine the body, taking with us a spade to bury it with.
On arriving at the place indicated—the second bight to the northwards of the peninsula—we saw the remains of a dead man. When he died he was, no doubt, under the shelter of an old frame-house, then partly in ruins; and since his death, and very recently, it has fallen down entirely, but without touching the body, and leaving it exposed to the weather. The body lay on a bed of grass, with some boards underneath raising it a few inches from
