480 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. XII. 



of making it — without any kind of warm food, 

 solid or liquid — with heavy showers of rain, fol- 

 lowed by thick snow — no wonder that Commander 

 Back should say, " it cannot be a matter of astonish- 

 ment, and much less of blame, that even the best 

 men, benumbed in their limbs, and dispirited by the 

 dreary and unpromising prospect before them, broke 

 out for a moment into low murmurings that theirs 

 was a hard and painful duty." 



No one can be surprised that, in such a state of 

 privation and suffering, Back was prevented from 

 carrying into effect or even undertaking what had 

 been his intention — that of proceeding coastwise to 

 Point Turnagain, to complete the unfinished part 

 left by Franklin. He sent, however, a small party 

 to the westward, to trace the coast, which was all 

 that could be done; but they were only able to 

 follow the shore about fifteen miles with every ex- 

 ertion they could use and the most severe labour, 

 sinking into snow and swampy ground mid-leg at 

 every step ; the surface level and void of vegetation. 

 They found, however, several pieces of drift-wood ; 

 one piece of which was nine feet long and nine 

 inches in diameter, which the men jocularly called 

 " a piece of the North Pole." Back was persuaded 

 that the fact of the drift-wood at this point of North 

 America establishes the continuity of the coast from 

 the mouth of the Mackenzie's River and of the cur- 

 rent which could alone have brought it. 



