Dease, Peter W., 1838, 'An Account of the Recent Arctic Discoveries.'

              220
Messrs. Dease and Simpson's Account
immediately complied with ; four oars were fitted with lashings to this strange craft, and the ladies declared that our party were true Esquimaux and not " Kabloonan." Before starting the hunters arrived, and were likewise gratified with tobacco, awls, buttons, and other trifles. " Dease's Inlet" is five miles broad at this place, yet so low is the land that the one shore is just visible from the other in the clearest weather. It now again blow strongly from the north-east, bringing back the cold dense fog, but the traverse was effected by aid of the compass. The waves ran high, and the skin boat surmounted them with a buoyancy which far surpassed that of our boasted north canoes. The party encamped on the west side of the inlet. The banks there were of frozen mud ten or twelve feet high; the country within was perfectly flat, abounded in small lakes, and produced a very short grass, but nowhere had the thaw penetrated more than two inches be¬ neath the surface, while under water along the shore the bottom was still impenetrably frozen. Not a log of wood was to be found in, this land of desolation, but our party followed the cx- am.ple.of the natives, and made their fire of the roots of the dwarf-willow in a little chimney of turf. Next morning (August 3rd) the fog cleared for a while, but it was still bitterly cold, and the swell beat high on the outside of a heavy line of ice which lay packed upon the shore. The latter, after extending five miles to the northward, turned off to the north-west, beyond which the latitude 71° 13' was observed. From this, jioinl, the coast trended more westerly, for ten miles, until the party eaii^e'fii'what appeared a large bay, where they stopped for two or three hours to await the dispersion , of the fog, not knowing which way to steer. In the evening their wish was gratified, and from that time the wea¬ ther became comparatively fine. The bay was now ascertained to be only four miles in width : the depth half way across was one fathom and a half on a bottom of sand ; that of Dease's Inlet was afterwards found to be two fathoms, muddy bottom, being the greatest depth between Return Reef and Point Barrow, ex¬ cept at ten miles south-east from Cape Halkett, where three fathoms on sand were sounded on our return. After crossing " Mackenzie's Bay" the coast again trended for eight or nine miles to the W.N.W. A compact body of ice extended all along and beyond the reach of vision to seaward; but the party carried their light vessel within that formidable barrier and made their way through the narrow channels close to the shore. At inid- niglit they passed the mouth of a fine deep river, a quarter of a mile wide, to which ]Mr. Simpson gave the name of '• The Belle Vue," and in less than an hour afterwards the rising sun gratified him with the view of Point Barrow stretching out to the N.N.W.