"IS THIS A TIME FOE PRAYING f" 339 



25th. The boat had then reached about 96° 40' W., and a mile of heavy and 

 dangerous rapids was before her. Again she was Ughtened, and every pre- 

 caution was taken as before ; but so overwhelming was the rush and whirl 

 of the water, that she and those in her were twice in the most imminent 

 danger of being engulfed in the hollows of the rapid. " It was in one of 

 those singular and dangerous spots, which partook of the triple character of 

 a fall, rapid, and eddy, in the short space of a few yards, that the crew owed 

 their safety solely to an unintentional disobedience of the steersman's direc- 

 tions. The power of the water so far exceeded whatever had been witnessed 

 in any of the other rivers of the country, that the precautions successfully used 

 elsewhere were weak and unavailing here. The steersman was endeavour- 

 ing to clear a fall and some sunken rocks on the left, but the man to whom 

 he spoke misunderstood him, and acted contrary to the instructions given. 

 And now seeing the danger, the steersman swept round the boat's stern : 

 instantly it was caught in an eddy to the right, which, snapping an oar, 

 twirled the boat irresistibly broadside on ; so that for a moment it seemed 

 uncertain whether the boat and all in her were to be hurled into the hollow 

 of the fall, or dashed stern foremost on the sunken rocks. Something, per- 

 haps wiser than chance, ordained it otherwise ; for how it happened no 

 account can be given, but so it was that her head swung inshore towards the 

 beach, and thereby gave Sinclair and others an opportunity of springing into 

 the water, and thus, by their united strength, rescuing her from her perilous 

 situation. Now, -had the man to whom the first order was given understood 

 and acted upon it, no human power could have saved the crew from being 

 buried in the frightful abyss. Nor yet could any blame be justly attached 

 to the steersman : he had never been so situated before, and even in this 

 imminent peril his coolness never forsook him. At the awful moment of 

 suspense, when one of the crew, with less nerve than his companions, began 

 to cry aloud for aid, M'Kay, in a still louder voice, exclaimed, ' Is this a 

 time for praying 1 Pull your starboard oar I ' ' Heaven helps them who 

 help themselves,' seems to have been the creed of this stout-hearted High- 

 lander." 



An observation taken at noon on the 26th, gave latitude 66° 6', " nearly 

 abreast of a picturesque and commanding mountain, with steep, sloping 

 sides to the south-west, where musk-oxen were feeding, but to the northward 

 broken into fearful precipices and overhanging cliffs, inaccessible to the foot 

 of man. It was by far the most conspicuous eminence we had seen ; and 

 from some fancied likeness, the people said, ' Here's Hoy's Head. Give way, 

 boys, we are not far from the sea ! ' The remark took me in imagination to 

 Auld Reekie ; and I called the hill Mount Meadowbank, in honour of the 

 learned lord of that name." 



For some time Back had been aware, from remains of Eskimo encamp- 



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