arry's Bay, we saw several deer,
but owing to the openness of the country, the hunters could not approach
them. They killed, however, two swans that were moulting, several cranes
and many gray geese. We procured also some caccawees, which were then
moulting, and assembled in immense flocks. In the evening, having
rounded Point Beechy, and passed Hurd's Islands, we were exposed to much
inconvenience and danger from a heavy rolling sea; the canoes receiving
many severe blows, and shipping a good deal of water, which induced us
to encamp at five P.M. opposite to Cape Croker, which we had passed on
the morning of the 12th; the channel which lay between our situation and
it, being about seven miles wide. We had now reached the northern point
of entrance into this sound, which I have named in honour of Lord
Viscount Melville, the first Lord of the Admiralty. It is thirty miles
wide from east to west, and twenty from north to south; and in coasting
it we had sailed eighty-seven and a quarter geographical miles. Shortly
after the tents were pitched, Mr. Back reported from the steersmen that
both canoes had sustained material injury during this day's voyage. I
found on examination that fifteen timbers of the first canoe were
broken, some of them in two places, and that the second canoe was so
loose in the frame that its timbers could not be bound in the usual
secure manner, and consequently there was danger of its bark separating
from the gunwales if exposed to a heavy sea. Distressing as were these
circumstances, they gave me less pain than the discovery that our
people, who had hitherto displayed in following us through dangers and
difficulties no less novel than appalling to them, a courage beyond our
expectation, now felt serious apprehensions for their safety, which so
possessed their minds that they were not restrained even by the presence
of their officers from expressing them. Their fears, we imagined, had
been principally excited by the interpreters, St. Germain and Adam, who
from the outset had foreboded every calamity; and we now strongly
suspected that their recent want of success in hunting had proceeded
from an intentional relaxation in their efforts to kill deer in order
that{33} the want of provision might compel us to put a period to our
voyage.

I must now mention that many concurrent circumstances had caused me,
during the few last days, to meditate on the approach of this painful
necessity. The strong breezes