Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/214

184 the western mouth of the riyer, and there encamped. With the telescope we discovered that the village on Tent Island was abandoned; from which we inferred that a narration about guns and cutting of throats, with which some of the Esquimaux had entertained us as we came along to-day, referred to an actual or apprehended attack of the Loucheux to avenge their slaughtered friends, and not to a scheme of the Mountain Indians to waylay us, as we at the time imagined. I here had the satisfaction of obtaining a set of lunar distances, which gave for the longitude 136° 36′ 45″ W.; the latitude, by the moon's meridian altitude, being 68° 49′ 23″ N. The longitudes assigned to the various points in our discoveries have been corrected and reduced back from hence by the watch; and the results are highly satisfactory, our expeditious return in thirteen days from Point Barrow yielding indeed little scope for error. Mr. Dease and I watched while the men slept. The night was serene, and not a sound broke upon the solemn stillness, save the occasional notes of swans and geese calling to their mates, and the early crowing of the willow partridge, as the soft twilight melted into the blush of dawn.

Our ascent of the Mackenzie was performed almost exclusively by towing, at the rate of from