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.
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