CONTINUATION OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE EASTERN DETACHMENT.

We coasted this day a flat shore, with dry sands running off to the distance of two or three miles, and we passed within several shoals, on which some heavy ice had grounded. Only a few small streams of ice were seen, although the ice-blink was visible the whole day. Soon after rounding Point Warren, we crossed the mouth of a large river, the water being muddy and fresh for a breadth of three miles, and the sounding lead was let down to the depth of five fathoms, without striking the bottom. This river is, perhaps, a branch of the Mackenzie, and falls into a bay, on which I have bestowed the name of my esteemed friend Copland Hutchinson, Esq. Surgeon Extraordinary to His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence. On its east side there is an island, which was named after Captain Charles Phillips, R.N. to whom the nautical world is indebted for the double-capstan, and many other important inventions.

At five o’clock in the afternoon, rainy weather setting in, we made for a small island, and mooring the boats as near the beach as we could, covered them up, and landed to prepare supper. The length of the day’s voyage was twenty-eight miles and a half. Mr. Kendall named the island in honour of Mr. Atkinson, of Berry-House; it is situated in latitude 69 degrees 55 minutes N., longitude 130 degrees 43 minutes W., and is separated from a flat, and occasionally inundated shore, by a narrow creek. It is bounded towards the sea by a bulwark of sand-hills, drifted by the wind to the height of 30 feet. Under their shelter 17 winter-houses have been erected by the natives besides a large building which from its structure, seemed to be intended for a place of assembly for the tribe. Ooligbuck thought it was a general eating-room, but he was not certain, as his tribe erect no such buildings.

I annex a section and ground plan of one of the largest of the dwelling-houses. The centre (A) is a square of ten feet, having a level flooring, with a post at each corner (D,D) to support the ridge-poles, on which the roof rests. The recesses (B) are intended for sleeping-places. Their floors have a gentle inclination inwards, and are raised a foot above the central flooring. Their back walls are a foot high, and incline outwards like the back of a chair. The ridge-poles are six feet above the floor, the roof being flat in the centre, and sloping over the recesses. The inside of the building is lined with split-wood, and the outside is strongly but roughly built of logs, the whole being covered with earth. An inclined platform (C) forms the ascent to the door, which is in the middle of one of the recesses, and is four feet high; and the threshold, being on a level with the central flooring, is raised three feet above the surrounding ground, to guard against inundations. There is a square hole in the roof, near the door, intended for ventilation, or for an occasional entrance. As we observed no fire-places in these dwellings, it is probable that they are heated, and the cookery performed in the winter, with lamps. Some of the houses were built front to front, with a very narrow passage between them leading to the doors, which were opposite to each other. This passage must form a snug porch in the winter when it is covered with slabs of frozen snow, and one end stopped up. Some of the larger houses which stood single, had log-porches to shelter their doors; and near each house there was a square or oblong pit, four feet beneath the surface of the ground, lined and covered with drift timber, which was evidently intended for a store-house.

The large building for an assembly-room was, in the interior, a square of 27 feet, having the log-roof supported on two strong ridge poles, two feet apart, and resting on four upright posts. The floor in the centre, formed of split logs, dressed and laid with great care, was surrounded by a raised border about three feet wide, which was, no doubt, meant for seats. The walls, three feet high, were inclined outwards, for the convenience of leaning the back against them, and the ascent to the door, which was on the south side was formed of logs. The outside, covered with earth, had nearly a hemispherical form, and round its base there were ranged the skulls of 21 whales. There was a square hole in the roof, and the central log of the floor had a basin-shaped cavity, one foot in diameter, which was, perhaps, intended for a lamp. The general attention to comfort in the construction of the village, and the erection of a building of such magnitude, requiring a union of purpose in a considerable number of people, are evidences of no small progress towards civilization. Whale skulls were confined to the large building, and to one of the dwelling-houses, which had 3 or 4 placed round it. Many wooden trays, and hand-barrows for carrying whale blubber, were lying on the ground, most of them in a state of decay.

Myriads of musquitoes, which reposed among the grass, rose in clouds when disturbed, and gave us much annoyance. Many snow birds were hatching on the Point, and we saw swans, Canada geese, eider, king, arctic, and surf ducks; several glaucous, silvery, black-headed, and ivory gulls, together with terns and northern divers. Some laughing geese passed to the northward in the evening, which may be considered as a sure indication of land in that direction. The sea-water at Atkinson Island being quite salt, and the ponds on the shore brackish, we had recourse to the ice that lay aground for a supply of fresh water. Strong gales of wind, with heavy rain, continued all night.

The inlet was named Browell Cove, in honour of the Lieutenant-Governor of the Royal Hospital at Greenwich, and the bay to the westward of it, M’Kinley Bay, out of respect to Captain George M’Kinley, of the Naval Asylum. The latitude of the mouth of Browell Cove is 70 degrees N., and the longitude 130 degrees 19 minutes W. We did not ascertain its extent, but as its water is brackish, it probably communicates with Esquimaux Lake, which, according to Indian report, lies behind the islands that form this part of the coast. Several large basins of salt water communicate with the cove. Some herds of deer were seen, but too many hunters going in pursuit of them they were frightened away. The temperature throughout the day was 42 degrees.

I observed forty species of plants in flower here, of which nearly one-third were grasses and carices. The Thrift common on the sandy parts of the British coast is a frequent ornament of Browell Cove; and seven or eight of the other plants seen there, are natives of the Scottish hills. Two dwarf species of willows were the only shrubs.

After rounding the shoals, we made a traverse of ten miles across an inlet, where the water ran out with a strong current; and, though five fathoms deep, it was nearly fresh. This I supposed to be another communication betwixt Esquimaux Lake and the sea, and named it Russel Inlet, after the distinguished Professor of Clinical Surgery in the University of Edinburgh. The land on its western side was called Cape Brown, out of respect to the eminent botanist, whose scientific researches reflect so much credit on British talent; and that to the eastward of the inlet received the name of Dalhousie, in honour of His Excellency the Governor-in-Chief of the Cañadas. Cape Dalhousie consists of a number of high, sandy islands, resembling those seen from Sacred Island, in the mouth of the Mackenzie. We entered some deep inlets amongst them, in search of a landing-place, but the beach was every where too flat. At length, after dragging the boats through the mud for a considerable way, and carrying the cargoes for a quarter of a mile over a flat sand, we reached the shore, and pitched the tents. The island on which we encamped was similar to the others, being from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet high above the water, and bounded on all sides by steep, sandy cliffs, which were skirted by flat sands. From the summit of the island we had the unpleasant view of a sea covered with floating ice, as far as the eye could reach to the eastward. Temperature during the greater part of the day 55 degrees; at nine P. degrees. Wind easterly. The length of this day’s voyage was thirty miles and a half; the latitude of the encampment 70 degrees 12 minutes, and longitude 129 degrees 21 minutes W.

Having obtained an observation for latitude, we directed our course to a projecting point across an inlet, with no land visible towards its bottom. The soundings in the middle of the opening exceeded nine fathoms; the water became less salt as we advanced, and at last could only be termed brackish. The point proved to be an Island sixteen miles distant from our breakfasting-place; and as we approached it, we had the mortification to perceive a coast seven or eight miles beyond it, apparently continuous, and trending away to the north-north-west. The island was named Nicholson Island, 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.

After obtaining an observation for latitude, we embarked, and continued our course along the coast until we came to the extremity of a cape, which was formed by an island separated from the main by a shallow channel. The cliffs of this island were about forty feet high, and the snow which had accumulated under them in the winter, was not yet dissolved, but, owing to the infiltration and freezing of water, now formed an inclined bank of ice, nearly two-thirds of the height of the cliff. This bank, or iceberg, being undermined by the action of the waves, maintained its position only by its adhesion to the frozen cliffs behind it. In some places large masses had broken off and floated away, whilst in others the currents of melting snow floating from the flat land above, had covered the ice with a thick coating of earth; so that at first sight it appeared as if the bank had broken down; the real structure of the iceberg being perceptible only where rents existed. In a similar manner the frozen banks, or icebergs, covered with earth, mentioned by Lieutenant Kotzebue, in his voyage to Behring Straits, might have been formed. Had the whole mass of frozen snow broken off from this bank, an iceberg would have been produced thirty feet wide at its base, and covered on one side to the depth of a foot, or more, with black earth. The island was composed of sand and slaty clay, into which the thaw had not penetrated above a foot. The ravines were lined with fragments of compact white limestone, and a few dwarf-birches and willows grew on their sides. The sun’s rays were very powerful this day, and the heat was oppressive, even while sitting at rest in the boat; the temperature of the air at noon being, in the shade, 62 degrees, and that of the surface water, where the soundings were three fathoms, 55 degrees.

Immediately after rounding the cape, which was named after His Excellency Sir Peregrine Maitland, Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, we entered a channel ten miles wide, running to the eastward, with an open horizon in that direction; and a doubt arose as to whether it was a strait, or merely a bay. Many large masses of ice were floating in it, which proved to us that it had considerable depth; but the water being only brackish, excited a suspicion that there was no passage through it. While we were hesitating whether to hazard a loss of time by exploring the opening, or to cross over at once to the northern land, several deer were seen, and the hope of procuring a supply of fresh meat, induced us to put ashore and encamp for the night, that the hunters might go in chase. The beach here was strewed with fragments of dark-red sandstone, white sandstone, white compact limestone, and a few pieces of syenite. There were many large trunks of spruce-firs lying on the sand, completely denuded of their bark and branches; and numerous exuviae of a marine crustaceous animal (gammarus borealis) lay at high water mark. Our hunters were successful, Ooligbuck and M’Leay each killing a deer. Many of these animals had fled to the cool moist sands on the coast, but even there the musquitoes tormented them so much as to render them regardless of the approach of the hunters. The latitude of our encampment was 70 degrees 7 minutes, longitude 127 degrees 45 minutes; and the length of the day’s voyage twenty-three miles. The temperature varied from 52 degrees to 63 degrees. By watching the motion of the tide for the greater part of the night, I fully satisfied myself that the ebb set out of the opening, and that the flood came round the land on the north side; hence I concluded that there could be no passage to the eastward in this direction, and that the opening led into a bay, to which the name of Harrowby was given, in honour of the Right Honourable the Earl of Harrowby.

The females, unlike those of the Indian tribes, had much handsomer features than the men; and one young woman of the party would have been deemed pretty even in Europe. Our presents seemed to render them perfectly happy, and they danced with such ecstasy in their slender boats as to incur, more than once, great hazard of being overset. A bundle of strings of beads being thrown into an oomiak, it was caught by an old woman, who hugged the treasure to her breast with the strongest expression of rapture, while another elderly dame, who had stretched out her arms in vain, became the very picture of despair. On my explaining, however that the present was for the whole, an amicable division instantly took place; and to show their gratitude, they sang a song to a pleasing air, keeping time with their oars. They gave us many pressing invitations to pass the night at their tents, in which they were joined by the men; and to excite our liberality the mothers drew their children out of their wide hoods, where they are accustomed to carry them naked, and holding them up begged beads for them. Their entreaties were, for a time, successful; but being desirous of getting clear of our visitors before breakfast-time, we at length told them that our stock was exhausted, and they took leave.

These Esquimaux were as inquisitive as the others we had seen respecting our names, and were very desirous of teaching us the true pronunciation of theirs. They informed us that they had seen Indians, and had heard of white people, but had never seen any before. My giving a little deer’s meat to one of them in exchange for fish, led to an inquiry as to how we killed the animal. On which Ooligbuck showed them his gun, and obtaining permission, fired it off after cautioning them not to be alarmed. The report astonished them much, and an echo from some neighbouring pieces of ice made them think that the ball had struck the shore, then upwards of a mile distant. The women had left us previously; several of the men departed the instant they heard the report; and the rest, in a short time, followed their example. They applied to the gun the same name they give to their harpoons for killing whales.

We learned from these people that the shore we were now coasting was part of the main land, and that some land to the northward, which appeared soon after we had passed their tents, consisted of two islands; between which and the main shore, there was a passage leading to the open sea. On landing to cook breakfast and obtain a meridian observation for latitude, we observed the interior of the country to be similar to that seen from Nicholson’s Island. The soil was in some spots sandy, but, generally, it consisted of a tenacious clay which cracks in the sun. The air was perfumed by numerous tufts of a beautiful phlox, and of a still handsomer and very fragrant cruciform flower, of a genus hitherto undescribed.

On re-embarking we pulled about eight miles farther betwixt the islands and the main, and found a narrow opening to the sea nearly barred up. The bottom was so soft and muddy that the poles sunk deep into it, and we could not carry the cargo ashore to lighten the boats. We succeeded, however, in getting through, after much labour, and the moment we crossed the bar, the water was greenish, and perfectly salt. The cape forming the eastern point of this entrance lies in latitude 70 degrees 36 minutes N., longitude 127 degrees 35 minutes W. and proved to be the most northerly part of the main shore which we saw during the voyage. It is a few miles farther north than Return Reef of Captain Franklin, and is most probably, with the exception of the land near Icy Cape, since discovered by Captain Beechey, in the Blossom, the most northern point of the American Continent. It was called Cape Bathurst, in honour of the Right Honourable the Earl of Bathurst, and the islands lying off it were named after George Baillie, Esq., of the Colonial Office. I could not account in any other way for the comparative freshness of the sheet of water we had left, than by supposing that a sand-bank extended from Cape Dalhousie to Baillie’s Islands, impeding the communication with the sea, and this notion was supported by a line of heavy ice which was seen both from Cape Bathurst and Cape Dalhousie, in the direction of the supposed bar, and apparently aground.

Taking for granted that the accounts we received from the natives were (as our own observations led us to believe) correct, Esquimaux Lake is a very extensive and curious piece of water. The Indians say that it reaches to within four days’ march of Fort Good Hope; and the Esquimaux informed us that it extends from Point Encounter to Cape Bathurst, thus ascribing to it an extent from north to south of more than one hundred and forty miles, and from east to west of one hundred and fifty. It is reported to be full of islands, to be every where brackish; and, besides its communication with the eastern branch of the Mackenzie, to receive two other large rivers. If a conjecture may be hazarded about the original formation of a lake which we had so few opportunities of examining, it seems probable that the alluvial matters brought down by the Mackenzie, and other rivers, have gradually formed a barrier of islands and shoals, which, by preventing the free access of the tide, enables the fresh water to maintain the predominance behind it. The action of the waves of the sea has a tendency to increase the height of the barrier, while the currents of the rivers and ebb-tide preserve the depth of the lake. A great formation of wood-coal will, I doubt not, be ultimately formed by the immense quantities of drift-timber annually deposited on the borders of Esquimaux Lake.