Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/166

 the beach, and narrowed towards a lake of some extent, where the unsuspecting animals are surrounded and speared in the water. On the shore were the remains of an Esquimaux camp. The earth was impenetrably frozen at the depth of four inches, so that our tent-pegs could not be driven home. Even this miserable soil produced a few flowers, but nothing new to add to our collection; and, since entering on new ground, not a rock in situ, or even a boulder-stone, had yet been found. The point of our encampment was about twenty feet high; and across the deer-pound, at the distance of four miles, the land formed another point of equal elevation. These two points we named after Messrs. A. R. M'Leod and M. M'Pherson, two gentlemen to whose good offices the expedition is under great obligations. About noon we observed, with pleasure, the ice beginning to open, and at 2 discovered a narrow lane of water leading out from the land, and apparently turning again inwards a few miles farther on. It blew a cutting blast from the north-east, and the spray froze upon the oars and rigging. Yet were we now in the midst of the Dog-days, that pre-eminent season of sunshine and beauty in more favoured lands! Having made our way, with considerable risk, amongst the ice, for seven miles, we