﻿1848. 



SLEEP IN back's INLET. 309 



ammunition, a few books, and other things which 

 I thrust into my pockets. Six pieces of pemican 

 were buried under a limestone cliff, together with 

 a boat's magazine full of powder. The tents 

 were left standing near the boats, and a few 

 cooking utensils and hatchets deposited in them 

 for the use of the Eskimos. 



After an early breakfast on the morning of 

 Sunday the 3rd of September we read prayers, 

 and then set out at six o'clock. At first we pur- 

 sued a straight course for the bottom of Back's 

 Inlet, distant about twelve geographical miles ; but 

 finding that we were led over the shoulder of a 

 range of hills on which the snow was deep, we 

 held more to the eastward, through an uneven 

 swampy country, where we saw many deer feeding ; 

 but made no attempt to pursue them. 



The men, with a few exceptions, walked badly, 

 particularly the two senior seamen, and after we 

 had gone a few miles, were glad to lighten their 

 loads by leaving their carbines behind. At half-past 

 three we reached the inlet, about seven miles from 

 the pitch of Cape Kendall, and halted for the night 

 under a cliff of basalt two hundred feet high. The 

 inlet and the sea in the offing were full of ice, and 

 the weather continued cold; but some scraps of 

 drift-wood, chiefly willows, being found on the 

 beach, we managed to cook supper; and, selecting the 



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