We had constant rain with thunder during the night. The nets furnished only three salmon-trout. We attributed the want of greater success to the entrance of some seals into the mouth of the river. Embarking at six A.M. we paddled against a cold breeze until the spreading of a thick fog caused us to land. The rocks here consisted of a beautiful mixture of red and gray granite, traversed from north to south by veins of red felspar which were crossed in various directions by smaller veins filled with the same substance.
At noon the wind coming from a favourable quarter tempted us to proceed, although the fog was unabated. We kept as close as we could to the main shore but, having to cross some bays, it became a matter of doubt whether we had not left the main and were running along an island. Just as we were endeavouring to double a bold cape the fog partially cleared away and allowed us an imperfect view of a chain of islands on the outside, and of much heavy ice which was pressing down upon us. The coast near us was so steep and rugged that no landing of the cargoes could be effected and we were preserved only by some men jumping on the rocks and thrusting the ice off with poles. There was no alternative but to continue along this dreary shore seeking a channel between the different masses of ice which had accumulated at the various points. In this operation both the canoes were in imminent danger of being crushed by the ice which was now tossed about by the waves that the gale had excited. We effected a passage however and, keeping close to the shore, landed at the entrance of Detention Harbour at nine P.M., having come twenty-eight miles. An old Esquimaux encampment was traced on this spot, and an ice chisel, a copper knife, and a small iron knife were found under the turf. I named this cape after Mr. Barrow of the Admiralty to whose exertions are mainly owing the discoveries recently made in Arctic geography. An opening on its eastern side received the appellation of Inman Harbour after my friend the Professor at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth, and to a group of islands to seaward of it we gave the name of Jameson in honour of the distinguished Professor of Mineralogy at Edinburgh.
We had much wind and rain during the night and by the morning of the 26th a great deal of ice had drifted into the inlet. We embarked at four and attempted to force a passage, when the first canoe got enclosed and remained for some time in a very perilous situation: the pieces of ice, crowded together by the action of the current and wind, pressing strongly against its feeble sides. A partial opening however occurring we landed without having sustained any serious injury. Two men were then sent round the bay and it was ascertained that, instead of having entered a narrow passage between an island and the main, we were at the mouth of a harbour having an island at its entrance, and that it was necessary to return by the way we came and get round a point to the northward. This was however impracticable, the channel being blocked up by drift ice, and we had no prospect of release except by a change of wind. This detention was extremely vexatious as we were losing a fair wind and expending our provision. In the afternoon the weather cleared up and several men went hunting but were unsuccessful. During the day the ice floated backwards and forwards in the harbour, moved by currents not regular enough to deserve the name of tide, and which appeared 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° 53′ 45″, longitude 110° 41′ 20″ West, variation 40° 49′ 34″ 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 our view at this place and these we could never approach.
Dr. Richardson discovered near the beach a small vein of galena traversing gneiss rocks, and the people collected a quantity of it in the hope of adding to our stock of balls, but their endeavours to smelt it were as may be supposed ineffectual. The drift timber on this part of the coast consists of pine and taccamahac (Populus balsamifera), most probably from Mackenzie’s or some other river to the westward of the Copper-Mine. It all appears to have lain long in the water, the bark being completely worn off and the ends of the pieces rubbed perfectly smooth. There had been a sharp frost in the night which formed a pretty thick crust of ice in a kettle of water that stood in the tents, and for several nights thin films of ice had appeared on the salt water amongst the cakes of stream ice.[[29]] Notwithstanding this state of temperature we were tormented by swarms of mosquitoes; we had persuaded ourselves that these pests could not sustain the cold in the vicinity of the sea but it appears they haunt every part of this country in defiance of climate. Mr. Back made an excursion to a hill at seven or eight miles distance and from its summit he perceived the ice close to the shore as far as his view extended.
[29] This is termed bay-ice by the Greenland men.
On the morning of the 29th the party attended divine service. About noon, the ice appearing less compact, we embarked to change our situation, having consumed all the fuel within our reach. The wind came off the land just as the canoes had started and we determined on attempting to force a passage along the shore, in which we happily succeeded after seven hours’ labour and much hazard to our frail vessels. The ice lay so close that the crews disembarked on it and effected a passage by bearing against the pieces with their poles, but in conducting the canoes through the narrow channels thus formed the greatest care was requisite to prevent the sharp projecting points from breaking the bark. They fortunately received no material injury though they were split in two places.