Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/224

194 sailors, fishermen, Canada raftsmen, and various other hazardous professions.

On the 13th we encamped within eight miles of Great Bear Lake. When we came in view of that magnificent sheet of water the following morning, it was violently agitated by an easterly wind. It occupied us two hours to reach the ruins of Fort Franklin; and, after a cold ducking from the waves, we found a snug harbour in the "little lake," where the officers of the former expedition made their experiments in acoustics. The bateaux, which had been despatched ahead from Fort Norman, were waiting for us here, and we encamped together. Several nets were set, with which we soon drew a good supply of trout, pike, white-fish, grayling, inconnu, and salmon-herring. In the evening I obtained a set of lunar distances; the longitude resulting from which was 123° 13′ 0″ W., being sixteen seconds westward of the position previously assigned to Fort Franklin. This difference, equal to two hundred yards, might be about our actual distance from the site of the buildings; and, though such perfect agreement on a single trial is, of course, accidental, it strengthened my confidence in the exactness of which the lunar method is susceptible, when the distances are carefully taken, and rigorously computed.