﻿298 SHALLOW WATER. August, 



by two cliffs of sand, and it pours out water enough 

 to render the sea clay-coloured for two or three 

 miles, and fresh enough to be drinkable. We en- 

 camped, three miles beyond it, on a point formed of 

 slate-clay, of which the beach, after we had passed 

 Cape Hearne, seemed every where to consist. Here 

 we found a decayed sledge, that was put together 

 with copper nails marked with the broad arrow, 

 which must have been extracted from the boats 

 I abandoned on the Coppermine River in 1826. 



Since rounding Cape Parry, we had seen very 

 few traces of Eskimos, and had not met a single in- 

 dividual of that nation ; but we had now entered a 

 better frequented district, in which traces of the 

 natives abounded. There was a hard frost in the 

 night, with a sharp east-south-east wind blowing 

 from the ice. 



The coast being flat, and the water within the 

 ice very shallow, the officers and most of the men 

 walked along the shore, on the morning of the 1st of 

 September, leaving two of the crew in each boat to 

 pole them along. The country is level and swampy, 

 and is crossed by long channels like ditches, on whose 

 banks shale and slate-clay are occasionally exposed. 

 It would seem that on this eastern flank of the 

 limestone formation there is also a shale deposit, 

 but not so extensive a one as that seen on its 

 western side. 



