482 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. XII. 



the spacious eastern extremity of Simpson's Strait ; 

 and also beyond it to the gulf of Akkolee. As a 

 further proof of an open sea, free of land, he says 

 that a gale of wind from the eastward swept a 

 whole field of ice, from that gulf, past Back's 

 Estuary, which, however, a westerly gale brought 

 back again, and it disappeared. 



Pinned down as he was to this miserable spot, 

 when nothing more could be done, " I felt," he 

 says, " I had no choice ; and assembling the men, 

 I informed them that the period fixed by His Ma- 

 jesty's Government for my return had arrived ; and 

 it now only remained to unfurl the British flag, and 

 salute it with three cheers, in honour of His Most 

 Gracious Majesty, giving his Royal name of Wil- 

 liam the Fourth's Land to this part of America." 



On the 15th of August the ice in the estuary had 

 sufficiently parted to allow the boat to proceed, and 

 with open water and a fair wind, they made about 

 twenty miles to the southward, in commencing 

 their return, " where, for a second time in nine 

 days," Back says, " we partook of a warm meal." 

 The many difficulties they bad experienced, in 

 falling down the river, were at least doubled in 

 the labour of going against the stream ; rocks and 

 rapids, and sand-banks, with numerous portages, 

 were all again to be encountered. " One day," 

 Back says, " we ascended between sixteen . and 

 twenty rapids." It would be a waste of the reader's 



