ootsteps of a small party of Esquimaux were seen on the
beach. Our encampment was situated in latitude 69 degrees 24 minutes N.,
and longitude 120 degrees 03 minutes W.

[Sidenote: Monday, 31st.] Embarking on the 31st, at two o'clock in the
morning, we succeeded in getting about six miles through the ice: when
we were again obliged to put ashore at the mouth of a small river, which
was named after James Buchanan, Esq., his Majesty's Consul at New York,
whose friendly attention to the officers of the Expedition well entitled
him to their gratitude. After waiting for a while the tide loosened the
ice a little, and we made some progress by debarking upon the floes, and
pushing them apart with poles, until a sufficient opening was made. This
operation was tedious, and not devoid of hazard to the boats, arising
from the rotatory motion frequently given to the floes, by the pressure
of the body of the ice. At noon, an observation for latitude was
obtained on a projecting point, which was named after William Tinney,
Esq., of Lincoln's Inn. At three in the afternoon, our progress being
again arrested by the compactness of the ice, we hauled the boats upon
the beach, and M'Leay having killed a fat buck rein-deer, the party had
an excellent supper after the fatigues of the day. The length of the
day's voyage was twenty-two miles; the latitude of our encampment, 69
degrees 17-1/2 minutes N., and its longitude 119 degrees 27 minutes W.
The coast line in this quarter is lower, few of the cliffs exceeding
forty feet in height, and there is a greater proportion of flat beach
than occurs nearer Cape Lyon. The ground is strewed with gravel,
apparently arising from a limestone conglomerate which exists there in
considerable quantity. The Melville Range is within four or five miles
of the shore at this place, and does not rise more than five hundred
feet above the sea. Many small rivulets flow from the rising grounds
into the sea, through wide gravelly beds, indicating that at times they
swell into large torrents.

[Sidenote: August 1st.] A light westerly wind having opened a narrow
channel between the ice and the shore, we embarked early in the morning
of the 1st of August, and, three miles from our encampment, came to a
river, which discharged itself by various shallow mouths, separated by
sand banks. Its westernmost and easternmost mouths were five miles
apart; and the latter, which was the largest, was one hundred and fifty
yards wid