232 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



have named in honour of Lord Viscount 

 Melville, the first Lord of the Admiralty. It 

 is thirty miles wide from east to west, and 

 twenty from north to south ; and in coasting 

 it we had sailed eighty-seven and a quarter 

 geographical miles. Shortly after the tents 

 were pitched, Mr. Back reported from the 

 steersmen that both canoes had sustained 

 material injury during this day's voyage. I 

 found on examination that fifteen timbers 

 of the first canoe were broken, some of them 

 in two places, and that the second canoe 

 was so loose in the frame that its timbers 

 could not be bound in the usual secure 

 manner, and consequently there was danger 

 of its bark separating from the gunwales if 

 exposed to a heavy sea. Distressing as 

 were these circumstances, they gave me 

 less pain than the discovery that our people, 

 who had hitherto displayed, in following us 

 through dangers and difficulties no less 

 novel than appalling to them, a courage be- 

 yond our expectation, now felt serious 

 apprehensions for their safety, which so 

 possessed their minds that they were not 



