﻿1848. BASALTIC CLIFFS. 311 



where we crossed, the inlet had contracted to the 

 breadth of four hundred yards ; and is there, in fact, 

 a river, since its water is fresh. The whole party 

 was landed on the southern shore by eleven o'clock. 

 On the river* I bestowed the name of my active, 

 zealous, and intelligent companion Mr. Rae, as a 

 testimony of my high sense of his merits and ex- 

 ertions, which had been called forth to the uttermost 

 in our late endeavours to push on through the ice. 

 It was mainly through his skill and perseverance that 

 we had been enabled to travel as far as we did by 

 sea, and thus shorten the land journey ; which, with 

 an increased distance, and, consequently, propor- 

 tionably augmented loads, would have been a very 

 arduous undertaking indeed to some of our party. 

 We considered ourselves as very fortunate in ob- 

 taining the assistance of a friendly party of Eskimos 

 at this place, on learning from them that the river 

 kept its width, and was not ford able for a long way 

 up the country. Mr. Rae, in the succeeding 

 spring, ascended it for twenty miles, and ascertained 

 that it flowed directly from the west, and was about 

 the size of the Dease, or about one hundred and 

 twenty yards wide. Its bed is limestone ; and a range 

 of basaltic cliffs, varying from fifty to two hundred 

 feet in height, skirts its northern bank. These cliffs 

 are a continuation of the magnificent precipices, 

 which, commencing at Cape Kendall, rise at intervals 



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