ppeared to be governed by the wind.
We perceived great diminution by melting in the pieces near us. That none
of this ice survives the summer is evident from the rapidity of its decay
and because no ice of last year's formation was hanging on the rocks.
Whether any body of it exists at a distance from the shore we could not
determine.

The land around Cape Barrow and to Detention Harbour consists of steep
craggy mountains of granite rising so abruptly from the water's edge as
to admit few landing-places even for a canoe. The higher parts attain an
elevation of fourteen or fifteen hundred feet and the whole is entirely
destitute of vegetation.

On the morning of the 27th, the ice remaining stationary at the entrance,
we went to the bottom of the harbour and carried the canoes and cargoes
about a mile and a half across the point of land that forms the east side
of it, but the ice was not more favourable there for our advancement than
at the place we had left. It consisted of small pieces closely packed
together by the wind extending along the shore but leaving a clear
passage beyond the chain of islands with which the whole of this coast is
girt. Indeed when we left the harbour we had little hope of finding a
passage, and the principal object in moving was to employ the men in
order to prevent their reflecting upon and discussing the dangers of our
situation which we knew they were too apt to do when leisure permitted.
Our observations place the entrance of Detention Harbour in latitude 67
degrees 53 minutes 45 seconds, longitude 110 degrees 41 minutes 20
seconds West, variation 40 degrees 49 minutes 34 seconds East. It is a
secure anchorage being sheltered from the wind in every direction; the
bottom is sandy.

July 28.

As the ice continued in the same state several of the men were sent out
to hunt, and one of them fired no less than four times at deer but
unfortunately without success. It was satisfactory however to ascertain
that the country was not destitute of animals. We had the mortification
to discover that two of the bags of pemmican which was our principal
reliance had become mouldy by wet. Our beef too had been so badly cured
as to be scarcely eatable through our having been compelled from haste to
dry it by fire instead of the sun. It was not however the quality of our
provision that gave us uneasiness but its diminution and the utter
incapacity to obtain any addition. Seals were the only animals that met