OF THE POLAR SEA. 171 



the encampment its rays gilded the tops of the 

 hills. 



The night was warm and we were much an- 

 noyed by the musquitoes. 



June 15. — We this morning experienced as 

 much difficulty as before in prevailing upon the 

 Indians to remain behind, and they did not con- 

 sent to do so until I had assured them that they 

 should lose the reward which had been promised, 

 if they proceeded any farther, until we had pre- 

 pared the Esquimaux to receive them. We left 

 a Canadian witli them, and proceeded on our 

 journey, not without apprehension that they would 

 follow us, and derange our whole plan by their 

 obstinacy. Two of the officers and a party of the 

 men walked on the shore, to lighten the canoes. 

 The river, in this part, flows between high and 

 stone cliffs, reddish slate clay rocks, and shelving 

 banks of white clay, and is full of shoals and dan- 

 gerous rapids. One of these was termed Escape 

 Rapid, from both the canoes having narrowly 

 escaped foundering in its high waves. We had 

 entered the rapid before we were aware, and the 

 steepness of the cliffs preventing us from landing, 

 we were indebted to the swiftness of our descent 

 for our preservation. Two waves made a com- 

 plete breach over the canoes ; a third would in 

 all probability have filled and overset them, which 



