uld 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 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 drift wood; 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 open 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. It contains several secure harbours, especially near the
mouth of Back's River, where there is a sandy bottom in forty fathoms.

On the 3d and 4th of August we observed a fall of more than two feet in
the water during the night. There are various irregular and partial
currents in the inlet, which may be attributed to the wind. I have
distinguished it by the name of Bathurst's Inlet, after the noble
Secreta