24: CRUISE OF THE NEPTUNE 
them. The next day the mouth of the inlet was reached; the 
night following they slept at Depot island. Next day with a 
fair wind and heavy sea they arrived close to Fullerton, and 
reached the ship the following morning. The Neptune started 
to our relief that afternoon, and anchored for the night off 
Depot island, Captain Comer, who had kindly volunteered, 
acting as pilot. The next day, when out of sight of land, on 
the north side of the entrance to Chesterfield inlet, the ship 
struck twice, and was in shallow water all the way to Promise 
island, after which the water of the inlet was found to be uni- 
formly deep. 
The gale in which we reached the ship continued for three 
days. On the evening of the 3rd of October the men with the 
boats returned to the ship, and reported having had a very 
rough time of it, in the makeshift camp there. On the 8th the 
ship steamed up the inlet and anchored close to the sunken 
launch. Efforts to bring her alongside the ship were imme- 
diately undertaken, and next morning she was successfully 
hoisted aboard. In the afternoon we started down, the inlet, 
and anchored for the night a few miles above Promise island. 
On the 10th a heavy gale blew from the westward, accompanied 
by frequent, thick snow squalls. The anchor was raised at day- 
light on the morning following, when, keeping well to the 
southward of the shoals beyond the mouth of the inlet, we 
arrived safely at Fullerton at dusk that evening. 
