360 SIMPSON'S EXPLORATIONS— l^ZQ-Z^. 



of which we now were. The sun was just reappearing, a little before one in 

 the morning of the 4th, when this joyful sight met my eyes. His early rays 

 decked the clouds in splendour as I poured forth my grateful orisons to the 

 Father of Light, who had guided our steps securely through every difficulty 

 and danger. We had now only to pass Elson Bay, which is for the most 

 part shallow. It was covered with a tough coat of young ice, through which 

 we broke a passage ; and then forced our way amid a heavy pack, nearly 

 half a mile broad, that rested on the shore. On reaching it, and seeing the 

 ocean spreading far and wide to the south-west, we unfurled our flag, and 

 with three enthusiastic cheers, took possession of our discoveries in his 

 Majesty's name." Thus did this most intrepid explorer successfully accom- 

 plish the first task which the Hudson's Bay Company had set before him. 

 He had advanced from the point at which Franklin had been compelled to 

 retire, and had connected the brilliant discoveries of that great navigator 

 with those of Beechey's expedition from the Pacific. 



Point Barrow, which had been the end and aim of Simpson's efibrts for 

 months, is a long, low spit of land, consisting of gravel and coarse sand, 

 which the pressure of the ice of numberless winters has forced up into 

 numerous mounds. Bare and bleak in itself, the most lively feature it pre- 

 sented was an immense Eskimo cemetery, where the remains of numbers 

 of that people were seen lying on the ground, still invested with the sealskin 

 dresses which they had worn in life. Near the spot where the explorers had 

 landed, at a very early hour, on this barren headland, there were two 

 Eskimo encampments, the inhabitants of which, roused from their slumbers 

 by the unwonted and ominous sound of three British cheers, appear to have 

 been at first struck with terror, and lay still within their huts. Afterwards, 

 however, they ventured out, and confidence was established between them 

 and their visitors in the usual way, and with the usual results. On the 4th, 

 Simpson launched the oomiack, and commenced the return voyage ; and on 

 the following day reached and rewarded the Eskimos from whom he had 

 borrowed the canoe. He stipulated, however, that he should retain the use 

 of the oomiack for a few days more, and promised to leave it for the owners 

 at Boat Extreme, where he had left Mr Dease and the remainder of the 

 party in charge of their own boats. On the 6th he reached Boat Extreme, 

 and, having laid up the canoe securely on the beach, he, together with Mr 

 Dease and the whole party, put to sea in the " Castor " and " Pollux," and 

 continued saiUng all night eastward along the shore toward the mouth of 

 the Mackenzie Eiver, where he arrived in safety on the 17th. " Our ascent 

 of the Mackenzie," writes Simpson, who was certainly the swiftest of all 

 Arctic explorers down to his own day, " was performed almost exclusively 

 by towing — at the rate of from thirty to forty miles a day. The crews were 

 divided into two parties, who relieved each other every hour, and were thus 



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