exposed to view, is a fine white sand. Large boulders lie on the sides of the hills, and, judging from the structure of the only point on which time permitted me to land, the whole appears to be similar to the sand deposit with its capping of boulder gravel which covers the shale on Athabasca and Mackenzie Rivers. On the point in question, the white sandy soil was ascertained to come from the disintegration of a sandstone, which has just coherence enough when in situ to form a perpendicular bank, but crumbles on being handled. It consists of quartz of various colours, with grains of Lydian-stone loosely aggregated, and having the interstices filled with a powdery matter, like the deposits of some calcareous springs. Similar sandstones occur at the "Narrows." Above it, there is a bed of gravel, also formed of variously coloured

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grains of quartz, mixed with chert from limestone. Most of the quartz is opaque, and veined or banded, but some of it is translucent. Some bits are bluish, others black, and many pebbles are coloured of various shades of mountain green. The latter are collected by the Eskimos and worn by them as labrets. The gravel covers the whole slope of the point, which is so steep as to require to be ascended on all fours. In one part a torrent had made a section of a bed of fine brown sand, twenty feet deep. On this bank I gathered the Bupleurum ranunculoides, which grows in Beering's Straits, but had not been found so far westward as the Mackenzie before; also the Seseli divaricatum, which had not been previously collected to the north of the Saskatchewan.

In latitude 68° 55′ N. the trees disappeared so suddenly, that I could not but attribute their cessation to the influence of the sea-air. Beyond this line a few stunted spruces, only, were seen struggling for existence, and some scrubby canoe-birches, clinging to the bases of the hills. Further on, the Rein-deer Hills lowered rapidly, and we soon afterwards came to Sacred Island, which, with the islets beyond it, is evidently a continuation of the sandy deposit noticed above. Had time permitted, I should have gone past Sacred Island, northwards, to deposit some pemican on Whale Island, but at so advanced a period of the summer,

I was unwilling to incur the loss of a day which that route was certain to occasion, and perhaps even of two days.

We did not land on Sacred Island, but observed in passing that it still continued to be a buryingplace of the Eskimos; two graves covered by the sledges of the deceased, and not of many years' construction, being visible from the boats. This is the most northerly locality in which the common red currant grows on this continent, as far as I have been able to ascertain. Five miles beyond the island, we landed on the main shore, to obtain a meridional observation, by which the latitude was ascertained to be 69° 4' 14" N., and the sun's bearing at noon, south 51° east. About three miles further on, we had a distant view of an eminence lying to the east

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ward, which resembled an artificial barrow, having a conical form, with very steep sides and a truncated summit. This summit, in some points of view, presented three small points, in others, only two, divided from one another by an acute notch. In the afternoon I landed on Richard's Island, which rises about one hundred and fifty or two hundred feet above the water, has an undulated grassy surface, and is bordered by clayey or sandy cliffs and shelving beaches. The main shore has a similar character. The channel varies in depth from two to six fathoms, but is full of sand-banks, on which the boats frequently grounded.

At ten in the evening we encamped on Point Encounter, in latitude 69° 16′ N., and set a watch at the boats, and also on the top of the bank, which is here nearly two hundred feet high. The tide ebbed at the encampment, from seven in the evening till half an hour after midnight. The ensign was planted on the summit of the cliff all the evening, and was no doubt seen by the Eskimos, who were in our neighbourhood, and most probably reconnoitred our encampment, but we saw nothing of them.

The readers of the narrative of Sir John Franklin's Second Overland Journey will recollect that off this point the Eskimos made a fruitless attempt to drag the boats of the eastern detachment on shore, for the purpose of plundering them.

CHAP. VIII.

ENTER THE ESTUARY OF THE MACKENZIE.- INTERVIEW WITH THE ESKIMOS.- REMARKS ON THAT PEOPLE.-WINTER-HOUSES NEAR POINT WARREN. COPLAND HUTCHISON BAY. FLAT

COAST WITH HUMMOCKS.-LEVEL BOGGY LAND. -MIRAGE.A PARTY OF ESKIMOS VISIT US.-POINT ATKINSON. -KASHIM. -OLD WOMAN.-OLD MAN.-YOUNG MEN. -CAPE BROWN. ESKIMOS.- -RUSSELL INLET.-CAPE DALHOUSIE.-SABINE XEMA. -LIVERPOOL BAY.-NICHOLSON ISLAND. -FROZEN CLIFFS OF CAPE MAITLAND.-ROCK PTARMIGAN.-ESKIMO TENTS.-HARROWBY BAY.- - BAILLIE'S ISLANDS.-RIVER OF THE TOOTHLESS FISH OR BEGHULA TESSÈ. ESKIMO OF CAPE BATHURST.THEIR SUMMER AND ITS OCCUPATIONS. SHALE FORMATION OF THE SEA-COAST.

August 3rd, 1848.-HAVING given some verbal instructions to the crews of the boats, respecting their conduct in the presence of the Eskimos, we embarked at four in the morning, and, crossing a shallow bar at the east end of a sand-bank, stood through the estuary between Richard's Island and the main, with a moderate easterly breeze, which carried us gradually away from the main shore. About an hour after starting, we perceived about two hundred Eskimos coming off in their kaiyaks, carrying one man each, and three umiaks filled with women and old men, eight or ten in each. The kaiyaks are so easily overbalanced, that the