310 CAPTAIN BACK'S LAND EXPEDITION— ISZZ-Z^. 



ments seen on tlie shore, that he had now arrived in that people's country ; 

 and on July 28 th he had an interview with a number of them, who had come 

 down to the shore, evidently with hostile intentions, but were speedily 

 pacified with a few simple presents. On July 29th the explorers were again 

 afloat, and at noon of that day they had reached lat. 67° 7', long. 94° 39'. A 

 majestic headland in the extreme distance north was named Victoria Head- 

 land ; and on coming abreast of this promontory, Captain Back knew that 

 he had reached the mouth of Great Fish Eiver, and that before him ex- 

 tended the waters of the Polar Sea. The exploration of the great river was 

 accomplished after running for five hundred and thirty geographical miles 

 through an iron-ribbed country, without a single tree on its banks, and inter- 

 rupted by no less than eighty-three falls, rapids, and cascades. The latitude of 

 the mouth of the river was ascertained to be 67° 11' ; its longitude 94° 30' W. 

 The rush of the river meeting a fresh breeze from the ocean raised such a 

 commotion that Back was glad to take refuge in an inlet to the south of 

 Victoria Headland, which he named Cockburn Bay. A number of days 

 were spent on the coasts at the mouth of the river to little purpose. It was 

 Back's earnest hope that he might be able to sail westward along the shore 

 to Point Turnagain ; but the ice-hampered shore to the west of the mouth 

 of the river rendered the attempt altogether vain. Imprisoned here by ice, 

 suffering from continuous wet weather, and from the depression arising from 

 inaction and from a hopeless prospect, the crew began to show signs of 

 declining health, and Back began to perceive that he had arrived at the limit 

 of his explorations. 



After discovering, naming, and visiting all the more striking natural 

 features at, around, and opposite the mouth -of Great Fish River — hereafter 

 to be known as Back's Eiver, from the name of its discoverer and explorer 

 — and after many unavailing attempts to penetrate to the westward, the 

 captain was convinced that to delay his return would only be unnecessarily 

 to expose his men, and to overstep the limit of time set down in his ofiicial 

 instructions as the date at which he should commence to retrace his steps. 

 This conviction was pressed upon him by the peculiarly dismal and hopeless 

 character of his situation and surroundings. The morning of the 14th 

 August was ushered in by a wet fog, in which no object was distinctly visible- 

 at the distance of eighty or ninety paces. At the same time, a breeze sprang 

 up and packed the seaward body of ice. For some time he had thought 

 of dividing the party, leaving four to protect the boat and property, and 

 going on with the others along the shore towards Point Turnagain. " But 

 this scheme," he writes, " was completely frustrated by the impracticability 

 of carrying any weight on a soil in which at every step we sunk half-leg 

 deep ; destitute of shrubs or moss for fuel, and almost without water ; 

 over which we must have travelled for days to have made even a few miles 



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