OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



441 



afterwards found that they never went up a quarter of that distance, merely 

 playing about the entrance to pick up their food, which was found to 

 consist of a very small fish abundant at the mouth of the stream. The 

 latter are probably therefore brought down by the streams at this season 

 from the lakes above, and occasion the salmon to resort to the spots in 

 which, it seems, they are annually found by the Esquimaux. With respect 

 to their spawning, it does not appear necessary for them to ascend any 

 streams for that purpose, if abundance of fresh water be all that is requisite 

 for it ; as the water of the creek was not merely drinkable, but perfectly 

 fresh almost down to its entrance. 



After Toolemak's departure w^e remained two or three days longer, but 

 only succeeded in killing one, more deer and three or four dozen fish of the 

 same kind and size as before. The whole country had by this time become 

 almost deluged with water, innumerable ponds and streams appearing on 

 every side, as if all at once let loose by magic ; so rapid had been the change 

 during a single week of fair and temperate weather ! The ice on the deep 

 lakes was from five to seven feet in thickness, and bade fair not to be entirely 

 dissolved during the summer ; that on the shallow ones was already very 

 thin and rapidly decaying. 



The river we were now leaving, and which I named after my companion 

 Mr. Crozier, was about three hundred yards in breadth abreast of our 

 tents ; but this part afterwards proved only a small branch of it, the main 

 stream coming from the south-eastward along the foot of the hills which 

 Captain Lyon was endeavouring to pass ; and indeed, as we had every reason 

 subsequently to believe, being the very route he had pursued, though it was 

 then so completely covered with snow in most parts as to allow the ice to be 

 distinguished only in a few places. The rocks in this neighbourhood are 

 principally composed of a reddish granite, but gneiss also frequently appears 

 among them. The sides of many of these are quite precipitous, in which 

 case water, either in a stream or a lake, is generally found at their base. 

 There is, however, between the hills abundant vegetation, affording excel- 

 lent feeding for the deer which were at this time very scarce here. The 

 lakes and ponds are the resort of numerous ducks of the king and long- 

 tailed species, and a few red-throated divers. We saw also some brent and 

 snow-geese, and Mr. Crozier obtained a single specimen of the latter. A 

 bird like a crane, standing three or four feet high, and with very long legs, 

 fairly outran our party in a long chase, and then with difficulty rose on the 



