Narrative of a Second Expedition to the Shores of the Polar Sea Part 12

At half-past one, the Dolphin being again rendered sea-worthy, we prosecuted our voyage until five P.M., when the flood-tide set with such velocity round a rocky point, and brought so much ice with it, that we considered it prudent to put ash.o.r.e. The violent eddies in the currents there, and the sudden approach and collision of the large ma.s.ses of ice, reminded us forcibly of the poet's description of Scylla and Charybdis.

The length of the day's voyage was twenty-one miles, and our encampment was situated in lat.i.tude 68 degrees 32 minutes N., longitude 113 degrees 53 minutes W. The temperature at nine P.M. was 60 degrees.

Mr. Kendall and I took a walk of some miles along the sh.o.r.e, and were happy to observe the coast inclining to the southward, although no doubt now existed as to our accomplis.h.i.+ng the voyage sufficiently early to allow us to cross the barren grounds, to the eastward of Great Bear Lake, before the cold weather set in. The flowering season for most of the plants on the coast was already past, but our route for the remainder of the distance to Bear Lake, inclining much to the southward, would naturally have the effect of prolonging to us the duration of the summer. A conspicuous hill, discovered in our walk, received the name of Mount Barrow, in honour of John Barrow, Esq., Secretary to the Admiralty; and two islands in the offing were named after Commanders Bayfield and Douglas, of the Royal Navy, to both of whom the officers of the Expedition were indebted for much a.s.sistance and personal kindness, in their progress through Canada. The interior of the country was flat, but the limestone formed cliffs on the sh.o.r.e two hundred feet high. From the form of the islands, I was led to believe that they consisted of trap rocks. Wollaston Land, as seen from this encampment, appeared to recede gradually from the main, and it sunk under the horizon, on a north-east bearing. By estimation, the most easterly part of it which we saw, is in lat.i.tude 68 degrees 45 minutes N., and longitude 113 degrees 53 minutes W. The navigation of the Dolphin and Union Straits would be dangerous to s.h.i.+ps, from the many sunken rocks which we observed near the southern sh.o.r.e.

[Sidenote: Monday, 7th.] Embarking at two A.M. on the 7th, we crossed a deeply indented bay, which was named after Lieutenant-Colonel Pasley, of the Royal Engineers, to whose invention we owe the portable boat, named the Walnut-sh.e.l.l, which we carried out with us. On the east side of Pasley Cove there are some bold limestone cliffs, that form the extremity of a promontory, to which we gave the name of Cape Krusenstern, in honour of the distinguished Russian hydrographer. It lies in lat.i.tude 68 degrees 23 minutes N., longitude 113 degrees 45 minutes W., and is the most eastern part of the main land which we coasted. From a cliff, two hundred feet high, two miles to the southward of Cape Krusenstern, we had a distinct view of the high land about Inman's Harbour, on the western side of Cape Barrow, which was the most easterly land seen on this voyage, and lies in longitude 111 degrees 20 minutes W. The s.p.a.ce between Capes Barrow and Krusenstern is crowded with islands.

By entering George the Fourth's Coronation Gulf at Cape Krusenstern, we connected the discoveries of this voyage with those made by Captain Franklin on his former expedition, and had the honour of completing a portion of the north-west pa.s.sage, for which the reward of five thousand pounds was established by his Majesty's Order in Council, but as it was not contemplated, in framing the Order, that the discovery should be made from west to east, and in vessels so small as the Dolphin and Union, we could not lay claim to the pecuniary reward.

While the party were at breakfast I visited Mount Barrow, which is a steep hill about three hundred feet high, surrounded by a moat fifty or sixty feet wide and twenty deep, and having a flat summit bounded by precipices of limestone. Three banks, like causeways, afforded the means of crossing the moat, and the hill altogether formed a remarkably complete natural fortification. The Esquimaux had marked most of the prominent points in this quarter, by erecting piles of stones similar to the cairns built for land-marks by the shepherds in Scotland. These erections were occasionally noticed, after doubling Cape Parry, but they were more numerous here. The ice which we saw this day was in form of loose streams, and offered no material impediment. Several wreaths of snow lay at the base of the cliffs that had a northern exposure, being the remains of that which had acc.u.mulated in the winter.

The lat.i.tude 68 degrees 13 minutes N. was observed at noon on a low point which projected from some higher lands. From this point, which was named after Edward H. Locker, Esq., Secretary to the Royal Hospital at Greenwich, we had a view of Cape Hearne, the form of which I thought I recognised from my recollections of it on the former voyage. We reached Cape Hearne in the evening, having in the afternoon skirted a low and indented coast; a bay immediately to the north of it was named after Captain Basil Hall, of the Royal Navy. Cape Hearne itself is a low point, not visible from the mouth of the Coppermine; but the high land behind it, when seen from a distance, appears like a steep promontory, and is that designated as Cape Hearne in Captain Franklin's chart of his former voyage. The lat.i.tude of this cape is 68 degrees 11 minutes N., and its longitude 114 degrees 54 minutes W. The length of the day's voyage was forty miles. Many deer were seen here, and Ooligbuck killed a very fine one in the evening. After encamping I went a few miles into the interior, and found that the country was composed of limestone, which rose by a succession of terraces to the height of about three hundred feet above the sea. The heat of the day was considerable, the thermometer, when exposed to the rays of the sun, indicating 86 degrees, without the bulb being blackened, or any other means used to retain the heat.

[Sidenote: Tuesday, 8th.] Embarking early on the eighth, and pa.s.sing through several loose streams of ice, some pieces of which were twenty-four feet thick, we landed at nine o'clock on a bold cape to prepare breakfast. It is formed of columnar greenstone, reposing on slaty limestone, and rising precipitously from the sea to the height of three hundred and fifty feet. I named this well marked point Cape Kendall, after my highly esteemed friend and companion, and had the pleasure of pointing out to him, from its summit, the gap in the hills at b.l.o.o.d.y Fall, through which the Coppermine River flows. Mr. Kendall having taken the necessary bearings and sketches for the completion of his chart, we descended the hill to announce to the men, that a short traverse would bring us to the mouth of the Coppermine River. As we were aware of the disappointment which often springs from the premature excitement of hope, we had not previously acquainted them with our near approach to the termination of our voyage; fearing that an unfavourable trending of coast, or an intervening body of ice, might protract it some days longer than we expected. The gratifying intelligence that we now conveyed to them, was, therefore, totally unexpected, and the pleasure they experienced found vent in heartfelt expressions of grat.i.tude to the Divine Being, for his protection on the voyage. At noon the lat.i.tude of Cape Kendall was ascertained to be 67 degrees 58 minutes N., and its longitude by reckoning was 115 degrees 18 minutes W.

Re-embarking, we steered for the mouth of the Coppermine River with the sails set to a fine breeze, plying the oars at the same time, and on rounding Cape Kendall, we opened a magnificent inlet, or bay, rendered very picturesque by the manner in which its lofty cliffs came successively in sight as we crossed its mouth. We distinguished it by the name of our mutual friend and companion Captain Back. One of Couper's Islands, on which we landed, consists of greenstone, rising from the water like steps of a stair; and from its summit we perceived that a low piece of land, which, on the former voyage, had been mistaken for an island, was, in fact, the extremity of Point Mackenzie, and that Richardson River was merely a ravine, now dry.[12] Having reached the mouth of the Coppermine River, we encamped within a hundred yards of the position of the tents on Captain Franklin's former Expedition. Some half-burnt wood, the remains of the fires then made, were still lying on the spot; and I also recognised the Esquimaux stage, which we visited on that occasion, but there were no skins nor utensils on it now.

The completion of our sea voyage so early in the season was a subject of mutual congratulation to us all; and to Mr. Kendall and myself it was highly gratifying to behold our men still fresh and vigorous, and ready to commence the laborious march across the barren grounds, with the same spirit that they had shown in overcoming the obstacles which presented themselves to their progress by sea. We all felt that the comfort and ease with which the voyage had been performed, were greatly owing to the judicious and plentiful provision of stores and food which Captain Franklin had made for us; and grat.i.tude for his care mingling with the pleasure excited by our success, and directing our thoughts more strongly to his party, the most ardent wishes were expressed that they might prove equally fortunate. The correctness of Mr. Kendall's reckoning was another source of pleasure. Having been deprived of the aid of chronometers, by the breaking of the two intended for the eastern detachment of the Expedition, during the intense winter cold, our only resource for correcting the dead reckoning was lunar observations, made as frequently as opportunities offered; yet when we approached the Coppermine River, Mr. Kendall's reckoning differed from the position of that place, ascertained on Captain Franklin's former Expedition, only twenty seconds of time, or about two miles and a half of distance, which is a very trifling difference when the length of the voyage and the other circ.u.mstances are taken into consideration. The distance between Point Separation and the mouth of the Coppermine River, by the route we pursued, is nine hundred and two geographical miles.

In our progress along the coast no opportunity was omitted of noting the times of high-water, and a tide-table drawn up by Mr. Kendall, is given in pages 236, 237. We nowhere observed the rise of the tide to exceed twenty-two inches, and in some places it was not more than eight or nine; but the velocity of the flood and ebb was greater than could have been expected from so small a rise. Off the Alluvial Islands, lying between the outlets of the Mackenzie River and Esquimaux Lake, it was in the strength of the flood about a mile an hour; at Cape Bathurst it exceeded a mile and a half; and in the Dolphin and Union Straits it was fully three miles. The stream of the flood set every where from the eastward.

The variation of the magnetic needle, which was forty-six degrees easterly at Point Separation, attained to 50 degrees at Refuge Cove, 53 degrees at Point Maitland, and 56 degrees at Cape Parry; after which it gradually decreased as we went to the south-east; and at the mouth of the Coppermine, it was 48 degrees.

We saw no ice that would have much impeded a s.h.i.+p, except between Sir George Clerk's Island and Cape Bexley, where it was heavy and closely packed. The appearance, however, of lanes of open water towards Wollaston Land, opposite to Cape Bexley, induced us to think that there might be a good pa.s.sage for a s.h.i.+p on the outside of the ice, which lined the south sh.o.r.e, and which seems to have been packed into the indentations of the coast by the strong north-west winds that had prevailed for some days. A s.h.i.+p would find shelter amongst the islands of George the Fourth's Coronation Gulf, in Back's Inlet, in Darnley Bay, and amongst Booth's Islands, lying off Cape Parry; but the bottom, at the latter place, is rocky, and there are many sunken rocks along the whole of that coast. To the westward of Cape Parry, we saw no s.h.i.+p harbours, and the many sand-banks skirting the outlets of Esquimaux Lake would render it dangerous for a s.h.i.+p to approach the sh.o.r.e in that quarter. There is such an abundance of drift-timber on almost every part of the coast, that a sufficient supply of fuel for a s.h.i.+p might easily be collected, and wherever we landed on the main sh.o.r.e we found streams or small lakes of fresh water. Should the course of events ever introduce a steam-vessel into those seas, it may be important to know that in coasting the sh.o.r.es between Cape Bathurst and the Mackenzie, fire-wood sufficient for her daily consumption may be gathered, and that near the Babbage River, to the westward of the Mackenzie, a tertiary pitch-coal exists of excellent quality, which Captain Franklin describes as forming extensive beds.

The height to which the drift-timber is thrown up on the sh.o.r.es at the western entrance of the Dolphin and Union Straits is, I think, an indication of an occasional great rise in the sea, which, as the tides are in comparison so insignificant, I can ascribe only to the north-west winds driving the waters of an open sea towards the funnel-shaped entrance of the straits. If this view is correct, Wollaston Land probably extends far to the north, and closely adjoins to Banks' Land, or is connected with it. Captain Parry found the strait between Melville Island and Banks' Land obstructed by ice, and this will naturally be generally the case, both there and in the Dolphin and Union Straits, if they form the princ.i.p.al openings through a range of extensive islands, which run north and south, and bound a large tract of sea, comparatively free from land. The heat of the summer in that quarter seems to be always or almost always sufficient to admit of the ice breaking up, but not powerful enough to dissolve it entirely. Hence the loose ice driven about by the winds, and carried to the lee-side of the wider expanses of sea, is firmly packed in the narrow straits and winding pa.s.sages amongst the islands, from whence it can be dislodged only by a concurrence of very favourable circ.u.mstances, and where the waste by the solar rays is replaced by every breeze blowing from the open sea. The north-west winds being the strongest and most prevalent in the latter part of the summer, it is at the western end of a strait that the ice is most frequently and closely packed. Captain Parry remarks that "there was something peculiar about the south-west extremity of Melville Island, which made the icy sea there extremely unfavourable to navigation, and which seemed to bid defiance to all efforts to proceed farther to the westward in that parallel of lat.i.tude." The Dolphin and Union Straits hold out greater prospects of success for a similar attempt, not only from their more southern position, but from the strong current of flood and ebb which flows through them and keeps the ice in motion.

We noticed on the coast about one hundred and seventy _phaenogamous_, or flowering plants, being one-fifth of the number of species which exist fifteen degrees of lat.i.tude farther to the southward. The gra.s.ses, bents, and rushes, const.i.tute only one-fifth of the number of species on the coast, but the two former tribes actually cover more ground than all the rest of the vegetation. The cruciferous, or cress-like tribes afford one-seventh of the species, and the compound flowers are nearly as numerous. The _shrubby plants_ that reach the sea-coast are the common juniper, two species of willow, the dwarf Birch (_betula glandulosa_), the common alder, the hippophae, a gooseberry, the red bearberry (_arbutus uva ursi_), the Labrador tea plant, (_ledum pal.u.s.tre_,) the Lapland rose (_rhododendron lapponic.u.m_,) the bog whortleberry (_vaccinium uliginosum_,) and the crow-berry (_empetrum nigrum_.) The kidney-leaved oxyria grows in great luxuriance there, and occasionally furnished us with an agreeable addition to our meals, as it resembles the garden sorrel in flavour, but is more juicy and tender. It is eaten by the natives, and must, as well as many of the cress-like plants, prove an excellent corrective of the gross, oily, rancid, and frequently putrid meat, on which they subsist. The small bulbs of the Alpine bistort (_polygonum viviparum_,) and the long, succulent, and sweet roots of many of the _astragaleae_, which grow on the sandy sh.o.r.es, are eatable; but we did not learn that the Esquimaux were acquainted with their use. A few clumps of white spruce-fir, with some straggling black spruces and canoe birches, grow at the distance of twenty or thirty miles from the sea, in sheltered situations, on the banks of rivers.

_ABSTRACT of the Meteorological Register, kept by the Eastern Detachment, in their Voyage between the Mouths of the Mackenzie and Coppermine Rivers._

Temperature in the Shade.

Highest. Direction of Date. Lowest. Mean. the Winds. Weather and Remarks.

---------------------------------------------------------------------- July 9 32 38 35 East; NEbE. Fresh breezes. Clear sky with fog over the ice.

10 45 57 51 ESE. Strong breezes, clear weather.

11 42 51 43 East. Strong breezes, clear sky, and bright sun.

12 45 50 47 Do. Ditto, ditto.

13 46 57 52 East; SE. Moderate breezes. Clear sky; rain in the night.

14 42 42 42 West. Heavy gales. Thick fog.

15 52 57 55 Nearly calm. Very fine weather.

16 38 55 47 South. Moderate breezes. Cloudy A.M., clear P.M.

17 50 62 54 West; North. Fog A.M. When wind veered to north cleared up. Temperature of sea 55 degrees.

18 45 56 50 South; East. Light airs A.M.; fresh breezes P.M.; calm in the night.

19 44 54 49 East; West. Fresh breezes and cloudy A.M.

Four P.M. West wind and foggy weather.

20 46 50 48 NW., WNW. Foggy; fresh breezes A.M.

Increased to a strong gale P.M.

21 42 48 46 WNW.; NW. Fresh breezes and foggy A.M.

Fine and clear P.M.

22 45 47 46 South. Fresh breezes A.M. Fine weather P.M.

23 46 58 52 SW. Moderate and cloudy. Many Musquitoes.

_Meteorological Register, &c.--Concluded._

Temperature in the Shade.

Highest. Direction of Date. Lowest. Mean. the Winds. Weather and Remarks.

---------------------------------------------------------------------- July 24 50 76 66 West. Moderate breezes. Foggy A.M.

Occasionally hazy P.M. Myriads of Musquitoes.

25 45 66 55 South; NE. Fine A.M. Strong gales and partial fogs P.M.

26 35 47 41 NE. Strong gales and clear.

Temperature of sea 35 deg.

27 35 45 40 ENE. Moderate.

28 35 50 42 Calm; North. Fine clear weather.

29 37 41 38 WNW. Moderate breezes; foggy.

30 36 40 38 WNW. Fog hanging over the ice; clear inland; moderate breezes.

31 38 45 41 NW. Moderate breezes; occasionally hazy, fog over the ice.

Aug.

1 43 50 48 West. Moderate breezes; hazy to seaward.

2 34 50 41 West; variable. Hazy and occasionally foggy.

3 38 43 40 NE.; East. Light breezes and clear.

4 38 55 46 NE.; ESE. Fine clear weather.

5 39 56 47 EbS.; WSW. Do. Moderate P.M.

6 42 56 47 South; variable. Do.

7 36 68 52 SSE. Fine and very clear.

Temperature in the sun 86 deg.

8 44 60 52 North. Do.

----------------- 41.45 51.92 46.48

FOOTNOTES:

[9] The appearance of whales on the north coast, nearly midway between the nearest pa.s.sages into Behring's and Barrow's Straits, and upwards of a thousand miles distant from either, affords subject for interesting speculation. It is known that they must come frequently to the surface to breathe, and the following questions naturally arise:--Are there at all seasons large s.p.a.ces of open water in the Arctic Seas? or do these animals travel from the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans immediately on the breaking up of the ice off Cape Bathurst, and so early in the season as the middle of July; while the sea, to the eastward and westward, is still covered with ice? if the latter is the fact, it is a very curious part of the natural history of these animals. The Esquimaux informed us, that they are rarely seen when the ice lies close, and in accordance with this remark Captain Franklin saw few to the westward, and we also lost them as we approached the Coppermine River, and met with more ice.

[10] Since the above pa.s.sage was written, the world has had to mourn the loss of this distinguished statesman and philosopher.

[11] Its lat.i.tude was ascertained by meridional observations to be 68 degrees 58 minutes N.

[12] Captain Franklin has since transferred the name of Richardson to the Bay between Point Mackenzie and the mouth of the Coppermine River.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE EASTERN DETACHMENT CONCLUDED.

CHAPTER IV.

Ascend the Coppermine River--Abandon the Boats and Stores--Commence the Land Journey--Cross the Copper Mountains and Height of Land--Meet Indians who bring Provisions--Arrive at Great Bear Lake--Detained by want of a Boat--Send out Hunters--Arrival of Beaulieu--Collect the Party, and proceed to Fort Franklin--Conclusion.

[Sidenote: Wednesday, 9th.] At four o'clock in the morning of the 9th of August, we left our encampment at the mouth of the Coppermine River, and proceeded in the boats to b.l.o.o.d.y Fall, a distance of about eleven miles.