OF THE POLAR SEA. &41 



there was every probability of its being driven 

 off the shore into the current ; which, as I have 

 before mentioned, we suppose, from the circum- 

 stance of Mackenzie's River being the only known 

 stream that brings down the wood we have found 

 along the shores, to set to the eastward. 



August 23. — A severe frost caused us to pass 

 a comfortless night. At two P.M. we set sail, 

 and the men voluntarily launched out to make a 

 traverse of fifteen miles across Melville Sound, 

 before a strong wind and heavy sea. The priva- 

 tion of food, under which our voyagers were then 

 labouring, absorbed every other terror; other- 

 wise the most powerful persuasion could not have 

 induced them to attempt such a traverse. It was 

 wdth the utmost difficulty that the canoes were 

 kept from turning their broadsides to the waves, 

 though we sometimes steered with all the pad- 

 dles. One of them narrowly escaped being 

 overset by this accident, happening in a mid-chan- 

 nel, where the waves were so high that the mast- 

 head of our canoe was often hid from the other, 

 though it was sailing within hail. 



The traverse, however, was made; we were 

 then near a high rocky lee shore, on which a 

 heavy surf was beating. The wind being on 

 the beam, the canoes drifted fast to leeward; 



