DOWN THE MACKENZIE 



147 



The midday sun shone directly upon us, the mosquitoes added 

 their vicious and irritating hum to the owdk tchowdk of the 

 waves in the hollows and the grinding of the floes as the tidal 

 currents moved them. 



It is said to be more difficult to sleep upon sand than upon 

 rock. I could see little difference myself, but we slept very 

 soundly, nevertheless, for two hours, when Tothin awakened us 

 with the information that the ice was moving. We were not in 

 a mood to care if Herschel Island were adrift and were not 

 pleased to find the barrier as firm as ever. The wind was blow- 

 ing from a favorable quarter and increasing, so that the ice field, 

 which a few yards out was not yet broken up, soon moved 

 enough to form a narrow lane at the base of the cliffs, through 

 which we beat our way against the gusts of wind and rain 

 which came whirling down the gulches of the rugged coast. 

 At midnight, July 8th, we were within six hundred yards of the 

 vessels, which were lying close together near the beach. They 

 were held at their anchorage by heavy floes, driven in by the 

 ice field. We could neither land upon the muddy precipice nor 

 continue farther with the canoes; a kumotik was sent to our 

 rescue, upon which the baggage was placed by a half dozen 

 Eskimos and sailors. I could not have believed it possible for 

 men to walk over such ice as we traversed before reaching the 

 vessels. Two or three of the men missed their footing in 

 jumping on the loose floes and were ducked in three fathoms 

 of water. The Count and I wore common leather shoes, which 

 were not so well adapted to use upon the ice as the flexible 

 soled Eskimo boots worn by the sailors, and our wild leaps must 

 have been highly amusing to the spectators. We were hospita- 

 bly received on board the bark " Balaena "by the assembled offi- 

 cers of the fleet. We brought them news only five months old. 



The journey from the mouth of the Mackenzie had occupied 

 eight days; had we had a boat, instead of the light canoes, we 

 could have easily reached the island in three days. Sir John 

 Franklin, who was the first white man to explore that coast, 

 reached Herschel Island on the 17th of July, 1826, ten days out 

 from the Mackenzie. His party had two boats, one twenty-four 

 and the other twenty-six feet in length. Dease and Simpson, in 

 1837, left the mouth of the Mackenzie on the 9th of July and 

 reached Herschel Island on the 14th. They were traveling in 



