The Whole Party Went To
Hunt But Returned Without Success In The Evening, Drenched With The Heavy
Rain Which Commenced Soon After They Had Set Out.
Several deer were seen
but could not be approached in this naked country and, as our stock of
pemmican did not admit of serving out two meals, we went dinnerless to
bed.
(*Footnote. It is a curious coincidence that our Expedition left Point
Turnagain on August 22 - on the same day that Captain Parry sailed out of
Repulse Bay. The parties were then distant from each other 539 miles.)
Soon after our departure this day a sealed tin-case, sufficiently buoyant
to float, was thrown overboard, containing a short account of our
proceedings and the position of the most conspicuous points. The wind
blew off the land, the water was smooth and, as the sea is in this part
more free from islands than in any other, there was every probability of
its being driven off the shore into the current which, as I have before
mentioned, we suppose, from the circumstance of Mackenzie's River being
the only known stream that brings down the wood we have found along the
shores, to set to the eastward.
August 23.
A severe frost caused us to pass a comfortless night. At two P.M. we set
sail and the men voluntarily launched out to make a traverse of fifteen
miles across Melville Sound before a strong wind and heavy sea. The
privation of food under which our voyagers were then labouring absorbed
every other terror; otherwise the most powerful persuasion could not have
induced them to attempt such a traverse.
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