that if we could only get along the low southern shore, which, though apparently unpromising, yet from its shallowness and greater radiation of heat favoured the chance of a narrow lane, we might by making a few portages be fortunate enough to succeed in reaching the open water; and at all events, whether we reached it or not, the people would be occupied, and prevented from brooding over their difficulties, and alarming themselves with the anticipation of imaginary evils.

For several hours we continued to creep slowly to the south, sometimes wedged in the ice, at others cutting through it with axes, and breaking huge masses away, now bringing the weight of the boat and cargo to act, then lifting her with fenders on each side cautiously through the openings; and thus was the way groped nearly all day, till, as the sun got low, a shallow part defied every attempt to pass it. In vain did the people wade and carry the pieces to lighten the boat; still she would not float over the large stones that paved the bottom. The ice, therefore, was the only chance; and after making a portage for some distance over an extremely rotten part, she was absolutely lifted over the remaining obstructions, and again loaded; after which our progress was more satisfactory, and

by using the same means, though at greater intervals, we at length (at 9 P. M.) reached the open water with a strong current. But though the picturesque sand-hills seemed close to us, and the crew, half benumbed as they were from being so long in the water, exerted themselves to the utmost, and had moreover the aid of the current, still, with all this, we did not reach land until past 10 P. M. Our observations placed us in latitude 65° 48′ 4′′ N., longitude 99° 40' 46" W., with variation 29° 38′ E.; and in sixteen hours we had only come fourteen miles.

July 21st. I examined the lake from the summit of the hill above our encampment, and found that the current which had befriended us over night became powerless about two hundred yards farther on; at which point the main body of the ice commenced again, and stretched to an undefinable distance, interrupted occasionally by jutting points, over which in some places it was again visible. A small southerly channel, however, led to some islands, and for these we steered, but soon became hampered with surrounding ice. The same mode of proceeding was therefore adopted as on the preceding day; and in four hours we were lucky enough to have advanced eight miles, though not in the direct line of our course. Some open water was then seen

to the north; and though doubtful if the river would be in that quarter or more to the eastward, I stood over for it, as the inclination of a line of sand-hills rather favoured the former opinion. With a little difficulty we succeeded in reaching a lane, which ultimately led us to the main land, against whose rocky sides the ice again abutted. A portage was immediately made, and the boat lifted over into the water. In ten minutes we were again stopped by ice, so thick that all our endeavours to cut a passage with the axes, and break it as had been hitherto done, were utterly in vain. Another place, which seemed to offer fewer obstacles, was tried with the same result; we therefore, landed and made a second portage across the rocks, which brought us to a sheet of water terminating in a rapid; and this, though seldom a pleasing object to those who have to go down it, was now joyfully hailed by us as the end of a lake which had occasioned us so much trouble and delay. In summer, however, or, more properly speaking, autumn, this lake must be a splendid sheet of water; wherefore, regarding it apart from the vexations which it had caused me, I bestowed upon it the name of Lake Garry, after Nicholas Garry, Esq., of the Hudson's Bay Company, to whose disinterested zeal in the cause of polar

discovery, and undeviating kindness to all connected with it, such honourable testimony has been borne by Sir Edward Parry and Sir John Franklin that to dwell on them here is superfluous.

353

CHAP. XI.

Gigantic Boulders. - Danger from the Rapids.- Course

of the River.-Lake Macdougall.

Hazardous Pas

sage. Sinclair's Falls. Northerly Bend of the River.-Mount Meadowbank. -Altitude of the Rocks. -The Trap Formation.- McKay's Peak. - Lake Franklin.-Extrication from Peril. Sluggishness of

the Compass.- Esquimaux

Victoria Headland.

- Portrait of a Female.

Mouth of the Thlew-ee

Choh.- Cockburn Bay. Point Backhouse.

Irby

and Mangles' Bay. - Point Beaufort. - Our Progress arrested. · Montreal Island. A Musk Ox killed.

Birds on the Island.

· Elliot Bay. — McKay, etc. sent along the Coast.— Esquimaux Encampments. Cape Hay.-Point Ogle. - Progress obstructed by the Ice. -A Piece of Drift-wood found. Ross Island.

Discoveries by Mr. King. - Magnetic Observations. — Point Richardson.- Point Hardy. - Conjectures as to a N.W. Passage and Channel to Regent's Inlet.

CONGRATULATING one another on our release, we went on with renewed spirits. Much ice was carried down the rapid, which, instead of going into the wide space in front, was impelled suddenly to the eastward, and thence again hurried by a strong northerly current into a branch of another lake, the bays of which were not less than from twelve to fifteen miles deep. Long ranges of conical and cliff-broken sand

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