d appearances did not indicate
that the present season would prove more favourable. The mean
temperature of the atmosphere had decreased rapidly since the sun had
begun to sink below the horizon, and the thermometer had not lately
shown a higher temperature than 37 degrees. Ice, of considerable
thickness, formed in the night, and the number of the flocks of geese
which were hourly seen pursuing their course to the westward, showed
that their autumnal flight had commenced.

While a hope remained of reaching Behring Straits, I looked upon the
hazard to which we had, on several occasions, been exposed, of shipwreck
on the flats, or on the ice, as inseparable from a voyage of the nature
of that which we had undertaken; and if such an accident had occurred, I
should have hoped, with a sufficient portion of the summer before me, to
conduct my party in safety back to the Mackenzie. But the loss of the
boats when we should have been far advanced, and at the end of the
season, would have been fatal. The deer hasten from the coast as soon as
the snow falls; no Esquimaux had been lately seen, nor any
winter-houses, to denote that this part of the coast was much
frequented; and if we did meet them under adverse circumstances, we
could not, with safety, trust to their assistance for a supply of
provision; nor do I believe that, if willing, even they would have been
able to support our party for any length of time.

Till our tedious detention at Foggy Island, we had had no doubt of
ultimate success; and it was with no ordinary pain that I could now
bring myself even to think of relinquishing the great object of my
ambition, and of disappointing the flattering confidence that had been
reposed in my exertions. But I had higher duties to perform than the
gratification of my own feelings; and a mature consideration of all the
above matters forced me to the conclusion, that we had reached that
point beyond which perseverance would be rashness, and our best efforts
must be fruitless. In order to put the reader completely in possession
of the motives which would have influenced me, had I been entirely a
free agent, I have mentioned them without allusion to the clause in my
instructions which directed me to commence my return on the 15th or 20th
of August, "if, in consequence of slow progress, or other unforeseen
accident, it should remain doubtful whether we should be able to reach
Kotzebue's Inlet the same season."

In the evening I com