The higher parts attain an
elevation of fourteen or fifteen hundred feet and the whole is entirely
destitute of vegetation.
On the morning of the 27th, the ice remaining stationary at the entrance,
we went to the bottom of the harbour and carried the canoes and cargoes
about a mile and a half across the point of land that forms the east side
of it, but the ice was not more favourable there for our advancement than
at the place we had left. It consisted of small pieces closely packed
together by the wind extending along the shore but leaving a clear
passage beyond the chain of islands with which the whole of this coast is
girt. Indeed when we left the harbour we had little hope of finding a
passage, and the principal object in moving was to employ the men in
order to prevent their reflecting upon and discussing the dangers of our
situation which we knew they were too apt to do when leisure permitted.
Our observations place the entrance of Detention Harbour in latitude 67
degrees 53 minutes 45 seconds, longitude 110 degrees 41 minutes 20
seconds West, variation 40 degrees 49 minutes 34 seconds East. It is a
secure anchorage being sheltered from the wind in every direction; the
bottom is sandy.
July 28.
As the ice continued in the same state several of the men were sent out
to hunt, and one of them fired no less than four times at deer but
unfortunately without success. It was satisfactory however to ascertain
that the country was not destitute of animals. We had the mortification
to discover that two of the bags of pemmican which was our principal
reliance had become mouldy by wet. Our beef too had been so badly cured
as to be scarcely eatable through our having been compelled from haste to
dry it by fire instead of the sun. It was not however the quality of our
provision that gave us uneasiness but its diminution and the utter
incapacity to obtain any addition. Seals were the only animals that met
our view at this place and these we could never approach.
Dr. Richardson discovered near the beach a small vein of galena
traversing gneiss rocks, and the people collected a quantity of it in the
hope of adding to our stock of balls, but their endeavours to smelt it
were as may be supposed ineffectual. The drift timber on this part of the
coast consists of pine and taccamahac (Populus balsamifera) most probably
from Mackenzie's or some other river to the westward of the Copper-Mine.
It all appears to have lain long in the water, the bark being completely
worn off and the ends of the pieces rubbed perfectly smooth. There had
been a sharp frost in the night which formed a pretty thick crust of ice
in a kettle of water that stood in the tents, and for several nights thin
films of ice had appeared on the salt water amongst the cakes of stream
ice.* Notwithstanding this state of temperature we were tormented by
swarms of mosquitoes; we had persuaded ourselves that these pests could
not sustain the cold in the vicinity of the sea but it appears they haunt
every part of this country in defiance of climate. Mr. Back made an
excursion to a hill at seven or eight miles distance and from its summit
he perceived the ice close to the shore as far as his view extended.
(Footnote. This is termed bay-ice by the Greenland men.)
On the morning of the 29th the party attended divine service. About noon,
the ice appearing less compact, we embarked to change our situation,
having consumed all the fuel within our reach. The wind came off the land
just as the canoes had started and we determined on attempting to force a
passage along the shore, in which we happily succeeded after seven hours'
labour and much hazard to our frail vessels. The ice lay so close that
the crews disembarked on it and effected a passage by bearing against the
pieces with their poles, but in conducting the canoes through the narrow
channels thus formed the greatest care was requisite to prevent the sharp
projecting points from breaking the bark. They fortunately received no
material injury though they were split in two places.
At the distance of three miles we came to the entrance of a deep bay
whose bottom was filled by a body of ice so compact as to preclude the
idea of a passage through it, whilst at the same time the traverse across
its mouth was attended with much danger from the approach of a large
field of ice which was driving down before the wind. The dread of further
detention however prevented us from hesitating, and we had the
satisfaction of landing in an hour and a half on the opposite shore,
where we halted to repair the canoes and to dine. I have named this bay
after my friend Mr. Daniel Moore of Lincoln's Inn, to whose zeal for
science the Expedition was indebted for the use of a most valuable
chronometer. Its shores are picturesque, sloping hills receding from the
beach and closed with verdure bound its bottom and western side, and
lofty cliffs of slate clay with their intervening grassy valleys skirt
its eastern border. Embarking at midnight we pursued our voyage without
interruption, passing between the Stockport and Marcet Islands and the
main, until six A.M. on July 30th when, having rounded Point Kater, we
entered Arctic Sound and were again involved in a stream of ice, but
after considerable delay extricated ourselves and proceeded towards the
bottom of the inlet in search of the mouth of a river which we supposed
it to receive, from the change in the colour of the water.
