as a mark of my esteem for William
Nicholson, Esq., of Rochester. It is bounded by high cliffs of sand and
mud, and rises in the interior to the height of four hundred feet above
the sea. The cliffs were thawed to the depth of three feet, but frozen
underneath, and the water issuing from the thawing ground caused the mud
to boil out and flow down the banks. There were many small lakes on the
island, and a tolerably good vegetation. Amongst other plants I gathered
here a very beautiful American cowslip, (_dodecatheon_,) which grew in
the moist valleys. From the summit of the island a piece of water,
resembling a large river, and bearing south, was seen winding through a
country pleasantly varied by gently swelling hills and dales, and
differing so much in character from the alluvial islands we had just
left, that I thought myself justified in considering it to be part of
the main land. From S.W. to W.N.W. open water was seen, broken only by a
few islands, that were named after Major-General Campbell, of the Royal
Marines. This large sheet of water is undoubtedly the Esquimaux Lake,
which, according to the natives, not only communicates with the eastern
branch of the Mackenzie, but receives, besides, two large rivers; and,
consequently, the whole of the land which we coasted from Point
Encounter, is a collection of islands. The temperature varied this day
from 38 degrees to 55 degrees. The length of the day's voyage was
thirty-three miles, the latitude of our encampment 69 degrees 57
minutes, and longitude 128 degrees 18 minutes W.

[Sidenote: Monday, 17th.] On the 17th a thick fog detained us until nine
o'clock in the morning, when it dispersed, and we left our encampment.
About two miles from Nicholson's Island the water was nine fathoms deep,
and had a brackish taste; but as we continued our course to the
northward, it became shoaler and salter. This added to the probability
of the winding channel, which bore south, being a large river; and that
opinion was further strengthened by our observing, when we landed to
breakfast, the shore to be strewed with tide-wrack, resembling that
which is generally found on the banks of rivers in this country, such as
pieces of willows, fragments of fresh-water plants, and lumps of peat
earth. We were delighted to find here a beach of sand and fine gravel,
bold enough to admit of our running the boats upon it. The fresh
footsteps of a party of Esquimaux were seen on the sand.

After o