Coast
until five P.M. when we put up on a rocky point nearly opposite to our
encampment on the 3rd, having come twenty-three miles on a
north-north-west course.
We were detained on the 8th by a northerly gale which blew violently
throughout the day attended by fog and rain. Some of the men went out to
hunt but they saw no other animal than a white wolf which could not be
approached. The fresh meat being expended a little pemmican was served
out this evening.
The gale abated on the morning of the 9th and the sea, which it had
raised, having greatly subsided, we embarked at seven A.M. and, after
paddling three or four miles, opened Sir J.A. Gordon's Bay into which we
penetrated thirteen miles and then discovered from the summit of a hill
that it would be in vain to proceed in this direction in search of a
passage out of the inlet.
Our breakfast diminished our provision to two bags of pemmican and a
single meal of dried meat. The men began to apprehend absolute want of
food and we had to listen to their gloomy forebodings of the deer
entirely quitting the coast in a few days. As we were embarking however a
large bear was discovered on the opposite shore which we had the good
fortune to kill, and the sight of this fat meat relieved their fears for
the present. Dr. Richardson found in the stomach of this animal the
remains of a seal, several marmots (Arctomys richardsonii) a large
quantity of the liquorice root of Mackenzie (hedysarum) which is common
on these shores, and some berries. There was also intermixed with these
substances a small quantity of grass.
We got again into the main inlet and paddled along its eastern shore
until forty minutes after eight A.M. when we encamped in a small cove. We
found a single log of driftwood; it was pine and sufficiently large to
enable us to cook a portion of the bear which had a slight fishy taste
but was deemed very palatable.
August 10.
We followed up the east border of the inlet about twenty-four miles and
at length emerged into the opens sea, a body of islands to the westward
concealing the channel by which we had entered. Here our progress was
arrested by returning bad weather. We killed a bear and its young cub of
this year on the beach near our encampment. We heartily congratulated
ourselves at having arrived at the eastern entrance of this inlet which
had cost us nine invaluable days in exploring.
