SECOND VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY. 



327 



prospect before us, but after scrambling about a mile found ourselves again 

 obliged to retrace our steps in order to avoid a chain of lakes, and when 

 after three hours' exertion we had, as we supposed, got nearly round these, 

 another cluster of greater magnitude was discovered, and we found our- 

 selves not five hundred yards from the spot on which we had slept. In 

 descending a precipice one of the men lost his hold, but was fortunately 

 arrested by a rock which lay beneath the snow, and escaped with only a se- 

 vere contusion on the nose. We had been obliged to throw our knapsacks 

 down this cliff and use the greatest caution in sliding down it, but had no 

 sooner reached its foot than the discovery of the lake obliged us again to 

 gain the height. Finding it impossible to accomplish the service at this 

 rate of travelling, and having only five hours to complete the out-going time 

 I determined on turning back, and arrived at the ships before noon on the 

 1st of September. 



" The mountains we passed were all of gneiss and granite, and I should 

 suppose many of them a thousand feet above the level of the sea. One chain 

 of lakes extended east and west about six or eight miles, and they were 

 apparently of great depth, although their width did not exceed a quarter 

 of a mile at any part. In these were several small falls or bars, over two of 

 which we waded. The steepness of the ridge of mountains bounding the 

 longest extent of lakes may be better understood by the outline I took on 

 the spot. 



