aving passed through this
channel we ran under sail by the Porden Islands, across Riley's Bay and,
rounding a cape which now bears the name of my lamented friend Captain
Flinders, had the pleasure to find the coast trending north-north-east,
with the sea in the offing unusually clear of islands, a circumstance
which afforded matter of wonder to our Canadians who had not previously
had an uninterrupted view of the ocean.

Our course was continued along the coast until eight P.M. when a change
in the wind and a threatening thunder-squall induced us to encamp, but
the water was so shallow that we found some difficulty in approaching the
shore. Large pieces of driftwood gave us assurance that we had finally
escaped from the bays. Our tents were scarcely pitched before we were
assailed by a heavy squall and rain, which was succeeded by a violent
gale from west-north-west which thrice overset the tents during the
night. The wind blew with equal violence on the following day and the sea
rolled furiously upon the beach. The Canadians had now an opportunity of
witnessing the effect of a storm upon the sea and the sight increased
their desire of quitting it.

Our hunters were sent out and saw many deer but the flatness of the
country defeated their attempts to approach them; they brought however a
few unfledged geese. As there was no appearance of increasing our stock
of provision the allowance was limited to a handful of pemmican and a
small portion of portable soup to each man per day. The thermometer this
afternoon stood to 41 degrees. The following observations were obtained:
latitude 68 degrees 18 minutes 50 seconds North, longitude 110 degrees 5
minutes 15 seconds West, but 109 degrees 25 minutes 00 seconds West was
used in the construction of the chart as the chronometers were found, on
our return to Hood's River, to have altered their rates; variation 44
degrees 15 minutes 46 seconds East and dip of the needle 89 degrees 31
minutes 12 seconds.

On August 18th, the stormy weather and sea continuing, there was no
prospect of our being able to embark. Dr. Richardson, Mr. Back, and I
therefore set out on foot to discover whether the land within a day's
march inclined more to the east. We went from ten to twelve miles along
the coast, which continued flat, and kept the same direction as the
encampment. The most distant land we saw had the same bearing
north-north-east, and appeared like two islands which we estimated to be