DEVIATION OF THE RIVER. 3QTj 



like turn; yet I endeavoured to persuade my- 

 self that the river would not ultimately deviate 

 so very far from its original course, and went 

 on. to the western inlet. However, as we ad- 

 vanced the opening assumed a more circular 

 appearance, and the altitudes of the boundary 

 hills became more and more equal and unbroken, 

 until at last, when we got fairly to the entrance, 

 it was evidently only a bay. But though it 

 could not be concealed that a range of low 

 mountains, stretching in a direction N. W. and 

 S. E., seemed to oppose an insurmountable 

 barrier to the onward course of the river in 

 the direction of my hopes, yet, as there was 

 one part unexamined, where a strong ripple 

 with white waves had been seen, I was unwilling 

 to abandon all hope until it had been ascer- 

 tained what that ripple was. Accordingly a party 

 crossed overland, and soon saw that the foam 

 was caused by a heavy rapid which fell into the 

 river at that part. My disappointment and un- 

 easiness may be conceived. All my plans and 

 calculations rested on the assumption of the 

 northerly course of the river; but this deter- 

 mined bend to the S. E. and the formidable 

 barrier ahead seemed to indicate a very different 

 course, and a termination not, as had been anti- 

 cipated, in the Polar Sea, but in Chesterfield Inlet. 

 However, be the issue what it might, Hudson's 



y 4 



