supposed they had recently visited the
spot. We therefore left several iron materials for them; and embarking
without delay, prepared to retrace our steps[13]. Our men, cheered by
the prospect of returning, shewed the utmost alacrity; and, paddling
with unusual vigour, carried us across Riley's and Walker's Bays, a
distance of twenty miles, before noon, when we landed on Slate-clay{34}
Point, as the wind had freshened too much to permit us to continue the
voyage. 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.

[13] It is a curious coincidence that our Expedition left Point
Turnagain on August 22d,--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. It
was with the utmost difficulty that the canoes were kept from turning
their broadsides to the waves, though we sometimes steered with all the
paddles. One of them narrowly escaped being overset by this accident,
which occurred in a mid-channel, where the waves were so high that the
masthead of our canoe was often hid from the other, though it was
sailing within hail.

The traverse, however, was made; we we