Thick weather again came on as we
entered the bay (named in honour of Sir Robert
H. Inglis) into which the Murchison River
falls, and we had much trouble in finding the
mouth of the river. Here the services of my
Cree hunter were of much value, as custom
had caused him to notice indications and
marks, which would have escaped the
observation of a person less acute and
experienced.

On the eleventh of May, at three A.M., we
reached the place where our two men had
been left. Both were as well as I could hope
for, the one whose great toe had been frozen,
and which was about to slough off at the first
joint, thereby rendering the foot very tender
and painful when walking in deep snow, had
too much spirit to allow himself to be hauled.
One deer, and eighteen partridges had been
shot; but, notwithstanding, I found a greater
reduction in our stock of provisions than I
had anticipated, and I felt confirmed in the
course I had taken.

The day became very fine, and observations
were taken, which gave the position of Cache
Island, where our snow-hut was—latitude
sixty-eight degrees thirty-two minutes
two seconds north, longitude ninety-three
degrees thirteen minutes eighteen seconds
west.

Having completed my observations, and
filled in rough tracings of the coast line,
which I generally did from day to day, we
started for home at eight thirty, P.M. The
weather being now fine, and the snow harder
than when outward bound, we advanced more
rapidly and in a straighter direction, until we
came to the lakes, about midway in the
Isthmus, after which, as far as Pelly Bay, our
outward and homeward route were exactly
alike. We reached Pelly Bay at one A.M., on
the seventeenth, and built a snow-house about
two and a half miles south, and the same
distance west, of my observations of the twentieth
of April.

Observing traces of Esquimaux, two men
were sent, after supper, to look for them.
After eight hours absence they returned with
ten or twelve native men, women, and children.
From these people I bought a silver
spoon and fork. The initials F. R. M. C., not
engraved, but scratched with a sharp instrument,
on the spoon, puzzled me much, as I
knew not at the time the Christian names of
the officers of Sir John Franklin's expedition;
and thought that the letters above-named
might possibly be the initials of Captain
M'Clure, the small c between M C being
omitted.

Two of the Esquimaux (one of them I had
seen in eighteen hundred and forty-seven)
offered for a consideration to accompany us a
day or two's march with a sledge and dogs.
We were detained some time by the slow
preparations of our new allies; but we soon
made up for lost time, and, after a journey of
sixteen geographical or about eighteen and a
half statute miles, we arrived at the east side
of the bay, in latitude by reduction to the
meridian sixty-eight degrees twenty-three
minutes ten seconds north, longitude eighty-
nine degrees fifty-eight minutes thirty-nine
seconds west.

It may be remembered that in the spring
of eighteen forty-seven I did not trace the
shore of Pelly Bay, but saw it from the summit
of one of the lofty islands in the bay. Desirous
of being always within, rather than of exceeding
the limits of truth, I that year placed the
head of the bay about ten miles north of what
it ought to have been, a mistake which will
be easily accounted for by those who know
the difficulties of estimating distances in a
snow-clad country, where the height of the
land is unknown.

The width of the isthmus separating Pelly
and Shepherd's Bays is fully sixty
geographical miles.

In the evening before parting with our
Esquimaux assistants, we bought a dog from
them, and after a most friendly farewell,
resumed our journey eastward, and found, on
a long lake, some old snow-houses, in which
we took up our lodgings. Here a set of good
observations placed us in latitude sixty-eight
degrees twelve minutes eighteen seconds
north, longitude eighty-nine degrees twenty-
four minutes fifty-one degrees west; variation
eighteen-one degrees west.

On the morning of the twenty-first, we
arrived at Committee Bay. From thence our
route to Repulse Bay was almost the same as
before; and I shall not, therefore, advert to it
further than to mention that we arrived at
our winter home at five, A.M., on the twenty-
sixth of May, — having, from the better walking,
travelled in twenty days the distance
(less forty or fifty miles) which had taken us
thirty-six days to accomplish on our outward
journey.

I found the three men who had been left in
charge of the property quite well, living in
abundance, and on the most friendly terms
with a number of Esquimaux families, who
had pitched their tents near them.

The natives had behaved in the most
exemplary manner; and many of them who
were short of food, in compliance with my
orders to that effect, had been supplied with
venison from our stores.

It was from this time until August that I
had opportunities of questioning the Esquimaux
regarding the information which I had
already obtained, of the party of whites who
had perished of starvation, and of eliciting
the particulars connected with that sad
event, the substance of which I have already
stated.

In the early part of July, the salmon came
from the sea to the mouths of the rivers and
brooks which were at that date open; and
we caught numbers of them. So that
occasionally we could afford to supply our native
friends with fifty or one hundred in a night.