g. 24 min. W.

On the 11th, in lat. 69 deg. 42 min. N., long. 132 deg. 10 min. W.,
the water was perfectly salt, the sea partially covered with drift
ice, and no land visible to seaward. They experienced considerable
difficulty in crossing the estuaries of several rivers, which were
deemed to be outlets of the shallow channels of the Mackenzie, that
had been left to the eastward. They suffered, besides, some detention
from ice and bad weather; and it was not until the 18th of July that,
in lat. 70 deg. 37 min., long. 126 deg. 52 min. N., they got entirely
clear of the widely spreading mouths of the Mackenzie, and of a large
lake of brackish water, which seems to receive one of the branches of
that river. The navigation across these wide estuaries was very
embarrassing.

This danger was gladly exchanged for a coasting voyage in the open
sea. They rounded Cape Parry, in lat. 70 deg. 8 min. N., long. 123
deg. W.; Cape Krusenstern in lat. 60 deg. 46 min. N., long. 114 deg.
45 min. W.; and entered George the IVth Coronation Gulf, by the
Dolphin and Union Straits (so named after the boats), which brought
them within sight of Cape Barrow, and two degrees of longitude to the
eastward of the coppermine river. Their sea voyage terminated as
beforementioned, on the 8th of August, by their actually entering that
river.

Although they saw much heavy floe ice, some of it aground even in nine
fathom water, yet none of it bore marks of being more than one season
old; and from the heights of land they could discern lanes of open
water outside,--so that a ship, properly strengthened for such a
voyage, could make way through it with a favouring breeze.

Throughout the whole line of coast they had regular tides, the flood
setting from the eastward; the rise and fall being from a foot to
twenty inches. In the Dolphin and Union Straits, the current in the
height of flood and ebb exceeded two miles an hour. They found drift
timber everywhere, and a large portion of it, on many parts of the
coast, lay in a line from ten to fifteen, and in some places upwards
of twenty feet, above the ordinary spring-tide water-mark, apparently
thrown up by a heavy sea.

After the first rapid, in the coppermine river, Dr. Richardson's party
abandoned the boats, with the remainder of their cargoes of provision,
iron-work, beads, &c. to the first party of Esquimaux which should
chance to pass that way; and on the 10th of August set out by land,
with ten da