am brought down no drift wood.
We were mortified to find the nets only procured one salmon and five
white fish, and that we had to make another inroad upon our dried meat.

_August 1_.--At two this morning the hunters returned with two small
deer and a brown bear. Augustus and Junius arrived at the same time,
having traced the river twelve miles further up, without discovering any
vestige of inhabitants. We had now an opportunity of gratifying our
curiosity respecting the bear so much dreaded by the Indians, and of
whose strength and ferocity we had heard such terrible accounts. It
proved to be a lean male of a yellowish brown colour, and not longer
than a common black bear. It made a feeble attempt to defend itself,
and was easily despatched. The flesh was brought to the tent, but our
fastidious voyagers supposing, from its leanness, that the animal had
been sickly, declined eating it; the officers, however, being less
scrupulous, boiled the paws, and found them excellent.

We embarked at ten A.M., and proceeding down the river, took on board
another deer that had been killed by Credit last evening. We then ran
along the eastern shore of Arctic Sound, distinguished by the name of
Banks' Peninsula, in honour of the late Right Honourable Sir Joseph
Banks, President of the Royal Society; and rounding Point Wollaston at
its eastern extremity, opened another extensive sheet of water; and the
remainder of the afternoon was spent in endeavouring to ascertain, from
the tops of the hills, whether it was another bay, or merely a passage
enclosed by a chain of islands. Appearances rather favouring the latter
opinion, we determined on proceeding through it to the southward. During
the delay four more deer were killed, all young and lean. It appeared
that the coast is pretty well frequented by rein-deer at this season;
but it was rather singular, that hitherto we had killed none (excepting
the first) but young ones of last season, which were all too lean to
have been eaten by any but persons who had no choice.

We paddled along the western shore with the intention of encamping, but
were prevented by the want of drift wood on the beach. This induced us
to make a traverse to an island, where we put up at midnight, having
found a small bay, whose shores furnished us with a little fire-wood. A
heavy gale came on from the westward, attended with constant rain, and
one of the squalls overthrew our tents. The course and distance made
th