ch. xxiv] Discovery of N. coast of A merica 229 
for the duty. Simpson was a very intelligent and 
energetic young Scot, born at Dingwall in Ross-shire 
in 1808. Dease was much older. The equipment was 
arranged at Fort Chipewyan. The two boats were 
clinker-built, 24 ft. keel by 6 ft. beam, each with a small 
oiled-canvas canoe. They were named the Castor and 
Pollux. Thirty bags of pemmican, each weighing 9 lb., 
and 10 cwt. of Red River flour were taken for the 
whole season. The daily ration per man was 3 lb. of 
pemmican. 
Descending the Mackenzie, Simpson pushed on along 
the coast, passing and naming the Colville river. When 
stopped by ice he resolved to reach Cape Barrow by 
land. He took eight men each with a load of 40 lb., 
including pemmican and flour, a blanket, ammunition 
and instruments, and one man carried a canvas canoe. 
They encountered very bad weather, but they reached 
the long low spit of land which Captain Beechey had 
named Cape Barrow, and were welcomed by the Eskimos 
settled there. Simpson returned to the Mackenzie, and 
ascended that river to his winter quarters at Fort 
Confidence. 
In the following year Simpson went down the Copper- 
mine river, to discover the coast to the eastward. On 
the 17th of July, 1838, the voyage was commenced. On 
reaching Cape Turnagain, Franklin's furthest point, 
Simpson went on by land with five of the Company's 
servants and two Indians. Each man carried a weight 
of 50 lb., including a tent, a canvas canoe, a kettle, two 
axes, and provisions for ten days. Open water was seen 
along the shores of Victoria Island while the continental 
coast was choked with ice. The party, after this excursion 
on foot, returned by the Coppermine to Fort Confidence 
to winter. 
On June 15th, 1839, Simpson set out again for the 
Coppermine river on foot, arriving where three men had 
been left in charge of the boat and baggage. The boat 
sailed past Cape Turnagain, and on the nth of August 
the discoverers came to the strait, about ten miles wide, 
between the continent and King William Island. It was 
named Simpson Strait. On the 12th there was a tre- 
mendous thunderstorm, with torrents of rain, and the 
