THOMAS SIMPSON 167 



whelmed by the turning over of the ice, three miles 

 from land, with the fog settled round them throughout 

 the inclement night. 



Continuing westwards along new country, they 

 reached and named Cape George Simpson (after the 

 Governor) and, a little further on, Boat Extreme, 

 where, from the coldness of the weather and the inter- 

 minable ice, the further advance of the boats appeared 

 to be so hopeless that Dease agreed to stay in charge 

 of them while Simpson with five men, including 

 McKay and Felix, pushed ahead for Point Barrow on 

 foot. Passing McKay Inlet and Sinclair River, named 

 after the two steersmen, an Eskimo camp was reached, 

 where Simpson exchanged his tin plate for a platter 

 made out of a mammoth tusk, and borrowed an oomiak 

 which floated in about half a foot of water. In this 

 useful skin boat the journey was resumed to Point 

 Barrow, and on the 4th of August the survey com- 

 pleted between Franklin's farthest and Elson's. 



The winter was passed at the mouth of the Dease 

 River, on Great Bear Lake, where Fort Confidence 

 had been built ready for the expedition on its return. 

 On the 6th of June, 1838, a start for the coast was 

 made by the Coppermine route, that river being reached 

 on the 22nd, and its descent accomplished, on the spring 

 flood, in nine days. But it was a bad season, and the 

 navigation was so hampered by ice that no start was 

 made to the eastward until the 17th of July. At 

 Boathaven, in 109 20', Simpson again left the boats 

 and went ahead with Sinclair and six others who had 

 not been to Point Barrow. Passing Franklin's farthest 

 at Point Turnagain, he kept on for a hundred miles 



