But we cleared them in the afternoon and encamped near
the northern entrance of the bay at a spot which had recently been
visited by a small party of Esquimaux, as the remains of some eggs
containing young were lying beside some half-burnt firewood. There were
also several piles of stones put up by them. I have named this bay after
my friend Captain David Buchan of the Royal Navy. It appears to be a safe
anchorage, well sheltered from the wind and sea by islands; the bottom is
sandy, the shores high and composed of red sandstone. Two deer were seen
on its beach but could not be approached. The distance we made today was
eighteen miles and three-quarters.
Embarking at four on the morning of the 12th we proceeded against a fresh
piercing north-east wind which raised the waves to a height that quite
terrified our people, accustomed only to the navigation of rivers and
lakes. We were obliged however to persevere in our advance, feeling as we
did that the short season for our operations was hastening away, but
after rounding Cape Croker the wind became so strong that we could
proceed no farther. The distance we had made was only six miles on a
north-east by east course. The shore on which we encamped is formed of
the debris of red sandstone and is destitute of vegetation. The beach
furnished no driftwood and we dispensed with our usual meal rather than
expend our pemmican. Several deer were seen but the hunters could not
approach them; they killed two swans. We observed the latitude 68 degrees
1 minute 20 seconds where we had halted to breakfast this morning.
August 13.
Though the wind was not much diminished we were urged by the want of
firewood to venture upon proceeding. We paddled close to the shore for
some miles and then ran before the breeze with reefed sails scarcely two
feet in depth. Both the canoes received much water and one of them struck
twice on sunken rocks. At the end of eighteen miles we halted to
breakfast in a bay which I have named after Vice-Admiral Sir William
Johnstone Hope, one of the Lords of the Admiralty.
We found here a considerable quantity of small willows such as are
brought down by the rivers we had hitherto seen, and hence we judged that
a river discharges itself into the bottom of this bay. A paddle was also
found which Augustus on examination declared to be made after the fashion
of the White Goose Esquimaux, a tribe with whom his countrymen had had
some trading communication as has been mentioned in a former part of the
narrative.
This morning we passed the embouchure of a pretty large stream and saw
the vestiges of an Esquimaux encampment not above a month old. Having
obtained the latitude 68 degrees 6 minutes 40 seconds North we
recommenced our voyage under sail, taking the precaution to embark all
the pieces of willow we could collect, as we had found the driftwood
become more scarce as we advanced. Our course was directed to a distant
point which we supposed to be a cape, and the land stretching to the
westward of it to be islands, but we soon found ourselves in an extensive
bay from which no outlet could be perceived but the one by which we had
entered. On examination however from the top of a hill we perceived a
winding shallow passage running to the north-west which we followed for a
short time and then encamped, having come twenty-three miles north by
east half east.
Some articles left by the Esquimaux attracted our attention; we found a
winter sledge raised upon four stones, with some snow-shovels and a small
piece of whalebone. An ice-chisel, a knife and some beads were left at
this pile. The shores of this bay, which I have named after Sir George
Warrender, are low and clayey and the country for many miles is level and
much intersected with water, but we had not leisure to ascertain whether
they were branches of the bay or freshwater lakes. Some white geese were
seen this evening and some young gray ones were caught on the beach being
unable to fly. We fired at two reindeer but without success.
On August 14th we paddled the whole day along the northern shores of the
sound, returning towards its mouth. The land we were now tracing is
generally so flat that it could not be descried from the canoes at the
distance of four miles and is invisible from the opposite side of the
sound, otherwise a short traverse might have saved us some days. The few
eminences that are on this side were mistaken for islands when seen from
the opposite shore; they are for the most part cliffs of basalt and are
not above one hundred feet high; the subjacent strata are of white
sandstone. The rocks are mostly confined to the capes and shores, the
soil inland being flat, clayey, and barren. Most of the headlands showed
traces of visits from the Esquimaux but none of them recent. Many ducks
were seen, belonging to a species termed by the voyagers from their cry
caccawees. We also saw some gray geese and swans. The only seal we
procured during our voyage was killed this day; it happened to be blind
and our men imagining it to be in bad health would not taste the flesh;
we however were less nice.
We encamped at the end of twenty-four miles' march on the north-west side
of the bay to which I have given the name of my friend Captain Parry, now
employed in the interesting research for a North-West Passage.
