RICHARDSON'S AND RAE'S EXPLORATIONS. 273 



The explorers met floes of drift-ice for the first time 

 after rounding Cape Parry, but they encountered them 

 more numerously as they approached Dolphin and Union. 

 Strait. On the 22d of August they had a strong gale 

 from the west ; and on the next morning they found 

 themselves hemmed in by dense packs, extending as far 

 as the eye could reach. The weather had hitherto been 

 genial, but now it passed into perpetual frost, with fre- 

 quent snow-storms. The expedition henceforth got on 

 with great difficulty ; and when they had penetrated 

 well up the west side of Coronation Gulf, they were 

 engirdled by rigorous winter, and felt compelled to 

 abandon their boats. They, therefore, were unable to 

 fulfil a portion of their official instructions, which directed 

 them to examine the western and southern shores of 

 Wollaston Land, lying north-west of Coronation Gulf; 

 and during eleven days, from the 2d till the 13th of 

 September, they travelled by land, up the valley of the 

 Coppermine, to their appointed winter home at Fort 

 Confidence, at the north-eastern extremity of the Great 

 Bear Lake. Next summer Sir John Richardson returned 

 to England. 



In his official report to the Secretary of the Admiralty, 

 Sir John says: "In the voyage between the Macken- 

 zie and Coppermine, I carefully executed their lordships' 

 instructions with respect to the examination of the 

 coast-line, and became fully convinced that no ships 

 had passed within view of the mainland. It is, indeed, 

 nearly impossible that they could have done so unob- 

 served by some of the numerous parties of Esquimaux 

 on the look-out for whales. We were, moreover, 

 informed by the Esquimaux of Back's Inlet that the ice 

 had been pressing on their shore nearly the whole sum- 

 mer ; and its closely-packed condition when we left it, 



on the 4th of September, made it highly improbable 

 13 



