These good-natured and friendly people were of essential service to Captain Back; for information having been brought to him by his men, that the fall was so tremendous that no boat could survive the descent, and that the crew were quite unequal to the task of conveying it over the long and lofty portage, he made significant sigus to the Esquimaux to lend them a helping hand. The request was cheerfully complied with, and with their assistance we succeeded in carrying the boat below the fall; so that, in reality, I was indebted to them for getting to the sea at all.'

On the 29th July, the day after parting with the Esquimaux, on the fog clearing up, they got sight of a majestic headland in the extreme distance to the north, on the eastern side of the river, which had so coast-like an appearance that no doubt could be entertained of its being one side of the opening into the sea; and so it proved to be on approaching it, and received the name of her Royal Highness the Princess Victoria. On the party arriving at this promontory, Captain Back thus sums up a brief and general view of this impetuous river :

This, then, may be considered as the mouth of the Thlew-ee-choh, which, after a violent and tortuous course of five hundred and thirty geographical miles, running through an iron-ribbed country without a single tree on the whole line of its banks, expanding into fine large lakes with clear horizons, most embarrassing to the navigator, and broken into falls, cascades, and rapids, to the number of no less than eighty-three in the whole, pours its waters into the Polar Sea in latitude 67° 11' 00" N., and longitude 94° 30' 0" W.; that is to say, about thirty-seven miles more south than the mouth of the Copper Mine River, and nineteen miles more south than that of Back's River at the lower extremity of Bathurst's Inlet.'-p. 390.

After a perusal of the narrative of this part of the expedition, we must say that the difficulties which Captain Back and his brave band of brothers' had to encounter, the dangers to which they were frequently exposed in overcoming them, the fatigue and privations they had to endure, and, in the midst of all, the patience, good humour, and willingness manifested on some very trying occasions, are above all praise; and more particularly so when, at an advanced period of the year, all the symptoms of winter had begun to threaten them with incarceration in the most desolate, inhospitable, and, from the experience he had of it, detestable region of the globe. In the best possible view of their condition they had before them the undisguised and not to be concealed truth, that the return to their winter-quarters must be made by the same long and arduous route, now rendered doubly difficult and arduous by having all the rapids, and falls, and cascades opposing, instead of aiding, their progress.

But

But other difficulties and hardships awaited them. Though the main object of the expedition no longer existed, Captain Back was anxious not to leave the coast until he had gained all the geographical information that the circumstances of the weather and the advanced season of the year would allow; but the whole of the estuary of the river was blocked up with ice. The bluff point described by the Esquimaux was full before them, at a short distance beyond Cape Victoria; but to have attempted to double that point, amidst the obstacles that surrounded them, would have involved them in inextricable difficulties; for the prevailing westerly winds and current packing the drift ice into Prince Regent's Inlet would have rendered their return utterly impossible. This bluff point, which was named Cape Hay, appears to be the northern extreme of the eastern coast. The weather for ten days continued chilly, wet, and foggy; during which they were mostly blocked up by ice, and unable to make any progress. This was mortification enough; but it was not all. The reindeer moss and a species of fern, the only products of this desolate region, were so much soaked with wet that they would not burn; so that, although they could and did kill deer, and might have got musk-oxen, they had no means of cooking their flesh-not even to boil a little water for tea. In eight days, we think Back says, they had but one hot meal. In this cheerless and wretched condition, without fire-without any species. of warm food-the rain scarcely ceasing for a moment, except to give way to snow-in such a state of suffering-and in total ignorance of what might be their future fate,-we agree with Captain Back, that it cannot be a matter of astonishment, and much less of blame, that even the best men, benumbed in their limbs, and dispirited by the dreary and unpromising prospect before them, broke out for a moment into low murmurings that theirs was a hard and painful duty.'

An event, apparently of trifling importance, was sufficient to divert their attention for a time from their deplorable situation. On the 10th August they had reached the latitude of 68° 10' on the western side of the estuary, from whence a party was sent to the westward to make observations. In the evening of that

day, the Captain says

"A shout of "What have you got there?" announced the return of the men: the jocular answer of "A piece of the North Pole," immediately brought Mr. King and myself from out the tent; and we found that they had really picked up a piece of drift-wood nine feet long and nine inches in diameter, together with a few sticks of smaller drift-wood, and a part of a canoe. When the large trunk was sawed, I was rather surprised to see it very little sodden with water;

a proof that it could not have been exposed for any considerable time to its action. From the peculiar character of the wood, which was pine, of that kind which is remarkable for its freedom from knots, I had no doubt that it had originally grown somewhere in the upper part of the country, about the Mackenzie; and of this I was the more competent to judge from my recollection of the drift-wood west of that large river, which it exactly resembled. Though we had strong reasons to be grateful for this unlooked-for treasure, as affording us the means of enjoying a hot meal-the first for several days,-yet there were other considerations which gave it in my eyes a far greater importance. In it I saw what I thought an incontrovertible proof of the set of a current from the westward along the coast to our left, and that consequently we had arrived at the main line of the land: for it is a fact well known to the officers of both Sir John Franklin's expeditions, that the absence of drift-wood was always regarded as an infallible sign that we had gone astray from the main, either among islands or in some such opening as Bathurst's Inlet, where, by reason of the set of the current, not a piece of any size was found.'—p. 413.

Several other pieces of drift wood, besides this log, were found by Mr. King, also a musk-ox and the greater part of the vertebræ and ribs of a whale, lying on the beach. No doubt could be entertained of all these being brought by the current from the westward. Captain Back was very desirous, but the difficulty was how, to get upon that coast, wedged in as they were by a body of ice that seemed to fill the whole extent of the estuary, which in its narrowest part appears by the chart to be twenty miles, and its depth from Victoria Headland to Point Richardson seventy miles. All that could be done was to despatch a party overland to trace the coast to the westward, but they had only been able to follow the shore about fifteen miles with the greatest exertion and hard labour, sinking into snow and swamp mid-leg deep at every step. The naked and uniform surface was broken only by one green hill, to which was given the name of Mount Barrow. From the summit of this hill was seen a wide opening in the land to the southwest,-in all probability the estuary of another river. To the north-east,' says Captain Back, there was water and ice, and beyond it a dark-grey or what is denominated a water-sky, while from the east to Cape Hay there was an open sea.'

On the evening of the 13th August, when wedged in on every side, and not ten yards of open water to be seen in any part of the estuary, suddenly, as if by magic, the whole body of ice began to drift with great rapidity in the direction of west-north-west. 'I was convinced, therefore,' says Back, that there must be in that particular bearing either a main sea or a very deep opening, to have allowed the escape of so great a portion of the immense extent of ice before us.' The next day a north-west wind brought

it all back again. Captain Back had hoped that the permanent opening of the ice would have afforded him the means of tracing the coast as far as Cape Turnagain; but it was now-the 18th August--but too clear that any such hope must be abandoned.

I had for some time cherished the notion of dividing the party, leaving four to protect the boat and property, whilst the remainder, with Mr. King, would have accompanied me on a land journey towards Point Turnagain; but this scheme was completely frustrated by the impracticability of carrying any weight on a soil in which at every step we sunk half-leg deep, destitute of shrubs or moss for fuel, and almost without water, over which we must have travelled for days to have made even a few miles of longitude; and where, finally, if sickness had overtaken any one, his fate would have been inevitable. Thus circumstanced, therefore, and reflecting on the long and dangerous stream, combining all the bad features of the worst rivers in the country that we had to retrace, the hazards of the falls and rapids, and the slender hope which remained of our attaining one mile farther, I assembled the men, and informed them that the period fixed upon by his Majesty's government for my return had arrived; and that it now only remained to unfurl the British flag, and salute it with three cheers in honour of his Most Gracious Majesty, whilst his royal name should be given to this portion of America, by the appellation of "William the Fourth's Land." The appeal was heartily responded to, and the loyal service was performed with the cheering accompaniment of a good glass of grog.'

Cape Richardson, the extreme point seen to the northward, is in lat. 68° 46' N., long. 96° 20' W.; Ross's Obelisk in lat. 69° 31' N., long. 99° 7' W. The bearing therefore of the second from the first is N. 52° W., distance eighty-six English miles; and the probable narrowest part of the strait, which separates the land called Boothia from the continent of America, between Point Richardson and Cape Smyth, thirty English miles. By observations with good needles, the line of variation taken at Back's extreme point passes a little to the eastward of Captain James Ross's magnetic pole.

The fact of the drift-wood at this point of North America establishes, we think beyond a doubt, the continuity of the coast from the mouth of Mackenzie's River, and of the current by which alone it could have been brought; it also proves the existence of a channel between the northern coast of America, and the spot where Captain James Ross erected his obelisk; and this receives a further confirmation from the immense field of ice which broke away to the westward, where there must have been an open channel to receive it. The water and ice, and the grey sky to the N.E., pointed directly to the strait of the Fury and Hecla, indicating an approach to the perpetual current which sets through

that

that strait, and which can only proceed from the western sea, there being none in Prince Regent's Inlet to the northward of that strait. The clear sea to the eastward of Cape Hay proved the correctness of the Esquimaux information, and was, in all probability, conneeted with another estuary falling into Prince Regent's Inlet, at the bottom of which may be the mouth of another river, running behind the mountains parallel to Back's River; and here will no doubt be found the place mentioned by the Esquimaux to Parry, and subsequently to Ross, under the name of Accolee, supposed to be not more than forty or fifty miles from the head of Wager Bay.

We have considered the drift wood to be, as Captain Back does, decisive of the continuance of the current from the westward, because by no other possible means could it have reached the point where it was found. The last remains of anything like wood, stunted firs and bushes, were seen in latitude 63° 15′ N. on the banks of the southern waters, or those which flowed into the Great Slave Lake; not a stick of any description was seen on the whole extent of Back's River; and Dr. Richardson observes that none of the rivers on this part of the coast (the eastward of Hearne's River) bring down any drift-timber.' The eastern side of America, through which Back's River flows, is composed of mountainous ridges of granite, porphyry, and slaty gneiss, with sandy barrens strewed over with large granite boulders. How different is the western coast of Norway, where forests of firs and birches are found growing as high up as the 70th parallel of latitude!

It will not be necessary for us to notice the laborious exertions of the party on their return. If they were severe on their descent of this impetuous river, how much more so must have been the ascent against the general current, the rapids and the portages, with increasing cold and stormy weather. At Garry's Lake they encountered a party of Esquimaux, which might amount to sixty persons, but they were shy, and no communication was had with them; they were supposed to have come from Wager Bay or Chesterfield Inlet. The whole tract was utter desolation; now and then a solitary white wolf, a wounded deer, or a musk-ox, might be seen sauntering near the bank of the river; even the mosquitos and the sand-flies were either dead or had buried themselves till the resurrection to a new life the following spring; the berries had not ripened, but were hanging green on the bushes. For thirtysix days they had tugged their boat against the stream or over the portages, making the average about fourteen miles a-day, when, on the 20th September, they fell in with Mr. M'Leod, at Sand-bill Bay, at the head of Aylmer Lake, where he had been waiting for

them