OF THE POLAR SEA. ISS 



point. They were also desired to put as much 

 meat as they could en cache on the banks of the 

 Copper-Mine River on their return. We then 

 furnished them with as much ammunition as we 

 could spare, and they took their departure, pro- 

 mising to wait three days for Mr. Wentzel at the 

 Copper Mountains. We afterwards learned that 

 their fears did not permit them to do so, and that 

 Mr. Wentzel did not rejoin them until they were 

 a day's march to the southward of the moun- 

 tains. 



We embarked at five A.M. and proceeded to- 

 wards the sea, which is about nine miles distant 

 from the Bloody Fall. After passing a few ra- 

 pids, the river became wider, and more navigable 

 for canoes, flowing between banks of alluvial 

 sand. We encamped at ten on the western bank 

 at its junction with the sea. The river is here 

 about a mile wide, but very shallow, being bar- 

 red nearly across by sand-banks, which run out 

 from the main land on each side to a low alluvial 

 island that lies in the centre, and forms two chan- 

 nels ; of these the westernmost only is navigable 

 even for canoes, the other being obstructed by a 

 stony bar. The islands to seaward are high and 

 numerous, and fill the horizon in many points of 

 the compass ; the only open space, seen from an 

 eminence near the encampment, being from 



