Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/208

 in Staines' River, as we travelled daring the night, and often out of sight of land, and they were perhaps dispersed along the lakes and inlets, to hunt the reindeer, after ending the trade with their eastern brethren. In the evening the Esquimaux had a leaping-match with our people, in which one of the former bore away the palm. A guard was set during the night. It was high-water about 4 o'clock, both and ; rise of the tide six inches

The wind having fallen and the ice relaxed in the forenoon of the 12th, we pushed out through it to gain clear water. The day was bright and fine. The mountains stood forth in all the rugged boldness of their outline, displaying their naked rocky peaks and steep descents with such marvellous distinctness that they seemed to touch the coast of which they form the bulwarks. The swell being with us, as long as the calm continued we made some progress with the oars; but a northerly breeze springing up raised such a cross sea that we were in imminent danger of foundering, when we providentially discovered an opening through the ice, leading into the mouth of a small stream—between Backhouse and Malcolm rivers—flowing from an inner basin, where we found a secure and pleasant harbour. It was now 3 ;