a heap by the Eskimos, and the pole was part of it, we hung up some articles of value to them by way of payment, in the hope that it would cause them to respect the signal-post. In the meantime our crews were preparing breakfast, and we had just finished this meal, when we saw some Eskimos from the cape running towards us. They had evidently been watching us, and came in the expectation of receiving some additional articles; nor were they disappointed. The soil here was thawed to the depth of fourteen inches. The deposit was made about five miles from the extreme point of Cape Bathurst. Many black whales and two white ones were seen this morning. The eider ducks had now assembled in immense flocks, and with the brent geese were migrating to the westward. Both these water-fowl follow the coast-line in their migrations on the Pacific as well as the Atlantic sides of the Continent. The eiders are only accidental visitors in the interior, and the brents are not seen inland to the eastward of Peel's River; but Mr. Murray informs me that in their northerly flight they follow the valley of the Yukon, thus cutting across the projecting angle of Russian America. The surface of the country in the vicinity of Cape Bathurst is level or gently undulated, and the sea cliffs are in many places nearly precipitous, and about one hundred and fifty feet high. The strata, where exposed, are sand and clay, and I believe that this promontory, from its northern point to the bottom of Franklin Bay, is the termination of the sandy and loamy deposit and bituminous shale which throughout the whole length of the Mackenzie rests on the sandstone and limestone beds so frequently noticed in the preceding pages, and fragments of which may be traced among the alluvial islands in the estuary of the Mackenzie, and in Liverpool Bay. A line drawn from Clowt sang eesa, or Scented Grass Hill, of Great Bear Lake, to the north-north-west, would form a tangent to the eastern coast-line of Cape Bathurst, and most probably mark the limit of the formation on that side. If so, the River Beghula, which enters Liverpool Bay, will flow through a country similar to that forming the banks of the Mackenzie, and being consequently well wooded, will abound in animals. As we proceeded to the south-east from Cape Bathurst along the shore, the crest of the high bank rose to about two hundred and fifty feet, and beds of bituminous shale, similar to those on the Mackenzie, are exposed in many places. At Point Trail, in latitude 70° 19′ N., the bituminous shale was observed to be on fire in 1826, and the bank had crumbled down from the destruction of the beds. Selenite, alum in powder, and the waxcoloured variety of that salt named "Rock butter," with sulphur, were among the products of the decomposition of the shale which I then collected; and the clays which had been exposed to the heat were baked and vitrified, so that the spot resembled an old brick-field. The sand covering the shale here is coherent enough to be a friable sandstone; and many concretions of clay iron-stone exist in the shale beds, exactly similar to those which are imbedded in the shale of Scented Grass Hill. Wilmot Horton River flows out by a narrow gorge from a flat valley, and the high banks, rising in ridges above the valley, flank it some way inland, as we had noticed them doing on the tributary streams that join the Mackenzie. Near Point Fitton the cliff is two hundred feet high, and contains layers of rock-butter two inches thick, with many crystals of selenite adhering to the surface of the slates. The cliff is capped by a marly gravel, two yards thick, containing pebbles of granite, quartz, Lydian stone, and compact limestone. To the southward of Wilmot Horton River, portions of the ruined bank continue to emit smoke. Cape Bathurst has been recently invested with more interest since it is the point of the main shore from whence Commander Pullen was directed by the Admiralty to take his departure in the summer of 1850, in his adventurous attempt to reach Melville Island. By the last accounts from Mackenzie's River, we learn that this enterprising officer received his instructions by express, on the 25th of June, being then in Slave River, on his way to York Factory. He immediately turned back, having been supplied with 4,500 lbs. of jerked venison and pemican by Mr. Rae, which he embarked in one of the Plover's boats, and in a barge of the Hudson's Bay Company, being the only available craft. The barge is well adapted for river navigation, but from its flatness unfitted for a sea-voyage, though it may be in some respects improved by the addition of a false keel, which Commander Pullen would probably give it before he descended to the sea. Its weight will render it much less manageable among ice than a lighter boat. No intelligence of this party has reached England since the above date, but we may expect to hear of his proceedings in May or June, 1851, before this volume has passed through the press. *This anticipation has been realised, as has been mentioned in p. 216. Commander Pullen found the sea covered with unbroken ice all the way from the Mackenzie to Cape Bathurst, a small channel only existing in shore, through which he advanced to the vicinity of the cape. Failing in finding a passage out to sea, to the north of Baillie's Islands, he remained within them, until the advance of winter compelled him to return to the Mackenzie. CHAP. IX. - ICE VOYAGE CONTINUED ALONG THE COAST. FRANKLIN BAY. — DRIFT ICE.- CROKER'S RIVER. - POINT CLIFTON. RIVER. -POINT WISE.-HOPPNER RIVER. CAPE YOUNG. STAPYLTON BAY. CAPE HOPE. COCKBURN. -A STORM. CHANTRY ISLAND. - SALMON.-LAMBERT ISLAND.—LEAVE A CAPE KRUSENSTERN. DETAINED BY ICE. BOAT. BASIL HALL'S BAY.-CAPE HEARNE. -PECULIAR SEVERITY OF THE SEASON. -CONJECTURES RESPECTING THE DISCOVERY SHIPS. RESOURCES OF A PARTY ENCLOSED BY ICE AMONG THE ARCTIC ISLANDS. -GENERAL REFLECTIONS. August 11th, 1848.-WE sailed along the coast all day with a light breeze, and in the afternoon eleven Eskimos came off from the shore and sold us some deers' meat. A woman of the party ran for two miles along the beach in the hope of receiving a present, and, when quite exhausted with her exertions, stripped off her boots to barter with us. One of the men in the kaiyaks brought them off, but, as they were too small for any of our crew, we returned them with a present of more than their |