Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/162

 in one extraordinary run we had thus made good three degrees, twenty-two minutes, of westing, or nearly half the distance between Return Reef and Point Barrow. I ought here to remark, that we were not provided by the Company with chronometers, but that the want was efficiently supplied by a very valuable watch, generously lent to the expedition by Chief Factor Smith. While in search of wood, a mile or two from the encampment, some of our people had another view of Pelly's Mountains, now south-east of us, and not more than twenty miles distant. The intervening country consists of plains clothed with very short grass and moss, the favourite pasture of the reindeer, of which some large herds were seen. The immediate coast-line is formed of frozen mud-banks, from ten to fifteen feet high. About a mile to the northward we discovered another splendid river, flowing from the south-west, and named it after Nicholas Garry, Esquire, whose name has long been associated with Arctic research.

It was high-water on the 26th at 6 in the morning; the wind having raised the tide about two feet, which enabled us safely to cross the shoals. The weather had become clear and intolerably cold. We found the mouth of the Garry one mile wide, and its banks thickly