caused a higher flood in the channel than we had yet seen, and the hope of effecting a passage by its course was revived. As the ice was still fast to the reef, and likely to continue so, it was considered better to occupy ourselves in dragging the boats through the mud, than to continue longer in this irksome spot, where the wood was already scarce, and the water indifferent. The boats accordingly proceeded with four men in each, while the rest of the crew walked along the shore, and rendered assistance wherever it was necessary, to drag them over the shallow parts. After four hours’ labour, we reached the eastern part of the bay, which I have named after my friend Captain Beaufort, R.N., and which was then covered with ice. We had also the happiness of finding a passage that led to seaward, and enabled us to get on the outside of the reef; but still our situation, for the next four hours, was attended with no little anxiety. The appearance of the clouds bespoke the return of fog, and we were sailing with a strong breeze through narrow channels, between heavy pieces of drift ice, on the outside of a chain of reefs that stretch across Beaufort Bay, which we knew could not be approached within a mile, owing to the shallowness of the water. Beyond the western part of this bay, the water being deep close to the coast, we sailed on in more security, and completed a run of 28 miles, the greatest distance we had made on one day since our departure from the Mackenzie. A black whale and several seals having been seen just before we landed to sup, the water being now decidedly salt, and the ice driving with great rapidity to the westward, were circumstances that we hailed with heartfelt joy as affording the prospect of moving speedily forward.”
On the 4th of August, the water was again found very shallow, and the boats repeatedly touched the ground, even at the distance of two miles from the shore. Next day their progress was obstructed, for several hours, by closely packed ice, on the outer border of a reef, in lat. 70° 7' N., long. 145° 27' W.; and they afterwards received several heavy blows while passing through the loose ice between that and an island, to which the name of Flaxman was given, in honor of the late eminent sculptor. The Rocky Mountains either terminated abreast of the above reef, or receded so far to the southward as to be imperceptible from the coast a few miles beyond it.
The view from the S.E. part of Flaxman Island, which is about four miles long and two broad, led Captain Franklin to suppose that he would be able to proceed by keeping close to its southern shore; but in making the attempt, the boats often got aground, and he was at length obliged to seek a passage by the north side.
