NORTHWEST PASSAGE — ROBINSON 233 



fathoms were obtained during the crossing of the strait. They drifted 

 throughout September 1, but toward evening of September 2, after 

 they had worked forward again, the fog lifted and a cape loomed 

 ahead. Larsen did not know which coast of Prince of Wales Strait 

 the cape marked, but decided to turn eastward. The cape proved to 

 be Peel Point, and he soon realized that he was in Richard Collinson 

 Inlet. Since there was much ice in the inlet and more pouring in 

 behind the boat, Larsen did not consider it wise to explore the inlet to 

 its head, and so turned around and retraced his course to Peel Point. 



The St. Roch entered Prince of Wales Strait on September 3 in 

 bright, clear weather. No ice blocked the passage and good time was 

 made to the southward. Holman Island was reached in midaf ternoon 

 of September 4, and the exciting news that the vessel had come through 

 the Northwest Passage was given to the amazed Hudson's Bay Co. 

 manager. Although many explorers had spent years in unsuccessfully 

 trying to work through the eastward-moving ice, it had taken Larsen 

 and the St. Roch only 18 days from the time they entered Lancaster 

 Sound until they were at Holman Island in the western Arctic. 



Larsen received instructions from Ottawa to proceed outside to 

 Vancouver and to complete the coast-to-coast voyage if he could. 

 After he left Holman Island on September 5, heavy ice gave difficulty 

 all across Amundsen Gulf and forced the St. Roch to proceed slowly 

 close to the shallow shore of the Canadian mainland west of Cape 

 Parry. On September 8 she was freed of the ice off the harbor at 

 Port Brabant, but ran aground trying to enter it in the dark. Larsen 

 backed her off and was able to get in just in time to ride out the worst 

 storm ever known at this place. Two days later, when the storm 

 abated, the entrance to the harbor was completey changed and Larsen 

 erected new markers. The ice was packed solidly in Mackenzie Bay 

 by the northerly hurricane, and it appeared that the St. Roch would 

 have to winter at Port Brabant. On September 17, however, Larsen 

 decided to attempt the crossing, and, after making slow progress 

 through the heaviest ice seen during the voyage, successfully reached 

 Herschel Island. The Eskimo family and dogs from Pond Inlet were 

 left here, along with a large share of the St. Roches coal and other 

 supplies. 



The history-making "Mounties" left Herschel Island on September 

 21, as the harbor was beginning to freeze over, and met more heavy ice 

 and fog along the Alaskan coast. With their goal so close, the cruel 

 Arctic weather was teasing them by making their progress more and 

 more difficult, but the St. Roch and her determined crew were not to 

 be denied this time, and their experienced captain countered every aim- 

 less movement of the ice. The last of the polar pack was left behind 

 near Wainwright Inlet, Alaska, and the remainder of the voyage 



