tied. We learned from the Esquimaux that this river, which they call
Cook-Keaktok, or Rocky River, descends from a very distant part of the
interior, though they are unacquainted with its course beyond the
mountains. It appeared to us to flow between the Cupola and Barn
mountains of the Richardson chain. There are many banks of gravel near
its mouth, but above these obstructions the channel appeared deep, and
to be about two miles broad. There were no rocks _in situ_, or large
stones, near the encampment; the rolled pebbles on the beach were
sandstone of red and light brown colours, greenstone, and slaty
limestone. We gathered a fine specimen of tertiary pitch-coal.

Augustus returned in the evening with a young Esquimaux and his wife,
the only residents at the house he had visited. They had now quite
recovered the panic into which they had been thrown on our first
appearance, which was heightened by their being unable to escape from us
owing to the want of a canoe. We made them happy by purchasing the fish
they brought, and giving them a few presents; they continued to skip and
laugh as long as they staid. The man informed us that judging from the
rapid decay of the ice in the few preceding days, we might soon expect
it to break from the land, so as to allow of our reaching Herschel
Island, which was in view; but he represented the coast to the westward
of the island as being low, and so generally beset with ice, that he was
of opinion we should have great difficulty in getting along. This
couple had been left here to collect fish for the use of their
companions, who were to rejoin them for the purpose of killing whales,
as soon as the ice should break up; and they told us the black whales
would soon come after its rupture took place. It would be interesting to
ascertain where the whales retire in the winter, as they require to
inhale the air frequently. Those of the white kind make their appearance
when there are but small spaces of open water; and we afterwards saw two
black whales in a similar situation. One might almost infer from these
circumstances that they do not remove very far. Is it probable that they
go, at the close of the autumn, to a warmer climate? or can the sea be
less closely covered with ice in the high northern latitudes? The
situation of our encampment was observed to be, latitude 69 degrees 19
minutes N.; longitude 138 degrees 10-1/2 minutes W.; variation 46
degrees 16 minutes E.; and a rise and f