ing risk, by continuing on. We were now only half-way along the Mackenzie River to Icy Cape; and the chance of reaching the latter depended on the nature of the coast that was yet unexplored, and the portion of the summer which yet remained for our operations. I knew, from the descriptions of Cook and Burney, that the shore about Icy Cape resembled that which we had already passed, in being flat, and difficult of approach; while the general trending of the coast from the Mackenzie to the W.N.W., nearly in the direction of Icy Cape, combined with the information we had collected from the Esquimaux, led me to conclude that no material change would be found in the intermediate portion. The preceding narrative shows the difficulties of navigating such a coast, even during the finest part of the summer; if, indeed, any portion of a season which had been marked by a constant succession of fogs and gales could be called fine. No opportunity of advancing had been let slip, after the time of our arrival in the Arctic Sea; and the unwearied zeal and exertion of the boats’ crews had been required, for an entire month, to explore the ten degrees of longitude between Herschel Island[1] and our present situation. I had, therefore, no reason to suppose that the ten remaining degrees could be navigated in much less time. The ice, it is true, was more broken up, and the sea around our present encampment was clear; but we had lately seen how readily the drift ice was packed upon the shoals by every breeze of wind blowing towards the land. The summer, bad as it had been, was now nearly at an end; and on this point I had the experience of the former voyage for a guide. At Point Turnagain, two degrees to the south of our present situation, the comparatively warm summer of 1821 was terminated on the 17th of August, by severe storms of wind and snow; and in the space of a fortnight afterwards, winter set in with all its severity.
“While a hope remained of reaching Behring’s Strait, I looked upon the hazard to which we had, upon several occasions, been exposed, of shipwreck on the flats or on the ice, as inseparable from a voyage of this nature; and if such an accident had occurred, I should have hoped, with a sufficient portion of the summer before me, to conduct my party in safety back to the Mackenzie. But the loss of the boats when we should have been far advanced, and at the end of the season, would have been fatal. No Esquimaux had been lately seen, nor any winter-houses, to denote that this part of the coast was much frequented; and if we did meet with them under adverse circumstances, we could not, with safely, trust to their assistance for a supply of provision; nor do I believe that, if willing, oven they would have been able to support our party for any length of time.
“Till our tedious detention at Foggy Island, we had had no doubt of ultimate success; and it was with no ordinary pain that I could now bring- ↑ Lat. 69° 34' N., long. 139° 5' W.
