JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



deer, but owing to the openness of the country, 

 the hunters could not approach them. They 

 killed, however, two swans that were moulting, 

 several cranes, and many gray geese. We pro- 

 cured also some caccawees, which were then 

 moulting, and assembled in immense flocks. In 

 the evening, having rounded Point Beechy, and 

 passed Kurd's Islands, we were exposed to much 

 inconvenience and danger from a heavy roUing 

 sea ; the canoes receiving many severe blows, 

 and shipping a good deal of water, which induced 

 us to encamp at five P.M. opposite to Cape 

 Croker, which we had passed on the morning of 

 the 12th; the channel, which lay between our 

 situation and it, being about seven miles wide. 

 We had now reached the northern point of en- 

 trance mto this sound, which I have named in 

 honour of Lord Viscount Melville, the first Lord 

 of the Admiralty. It is thirty miles wide from 

 east to west, and twenty from north to south ; and 

 m coastmg it we had sailed eighty-seven and a 

 quarter geographical miles. Shortly after the 

 tents were pitched, Mr. Back reported from the 

 steersmen that both canoes had sustained material 

 injury during this day's voyage. I found on ex. 

 ammation that fifteen timbers of the first canoe 

 were broken, some of them in two places, and 

 that the second canoe was so loose in the frame 



