474 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. XII. 



selves the social sympathies were quickened by a generous 

 bowl of punch." — p. 245. 



On the 7th of June, Back accompanied by Mr. 

 King left Fort Reliance, each delighted, as may 

 well be imagined, in escaping from scenes of suffer- 

 ing and death, from heart-rending care and vexa- 

 tious disappointment. " Before me," he says, 

 " were novelty and enterprise; hope, curiosity, and 

 the love of adventure were my companions; and 

 even the prospect of difficulties and dangers to be 

 encountered, with the responsibility inseparable from 

 command, instead of damping, rather heightened 

 the enjoyment of the moment." On the 28th of 

 June the boat was carried over the last portage 

 which divides the northern streams from the southern 

 ones, into the latter of which she was to be launched, 

 it being the river which he had discovered, the 

 Thlew-ee-choh, or, as appropriately now named, 

 Back's River, and which was to convey them into 

 the Polar Sea. 



A singular remark is here made regarding the 

 temperature. About the end of May, just before they 

 set out, the weather was sultry, the temperature 

 in the sun being 106°; an extraordinary contrast, 

 he observes, to that of the 17th of January, when it 

 was 70° below zero ! extremes so much in excess 

 from any recorded, that the correctness of the in- 

 strument may be doubted. They now experienced 

 the weather to be cold, thick, and foggy. On 



