Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/297

Rh upon two Esquimaux, who were travelling from the eastward towards the Bloody Fall, where the season for drying salmon now commences. He took off his cap and waved it to them, but (as he acknowledged) running away at the same time; and the strangers seemed as little disposed for intercourse as himself.

On the 13th, the sun's lower limb almost touched the horizon at midnight. At this period the banks of the river were adorned with a profusion of flowers, which contributed to enrich Mr. Dease's herbal. The nets produced, during our detention, one hundred and forty fish, chiefly Arctic salmon, large salmon-trout, and tullibee; with a few methy, white-fish, red sucking-carp, and diminutive flounders. I obtained an excellent series of solar altitudes and lunar distances, which place the mouth of the Coppermine in lat. 68° 48′ 27″ N., long. 115° 31′ 15″ W. ; being 37 seconds to the northward, 5′ 34″, or about two miles, to the eastward of the position determined by Sir John Franklin; but he was encamped on the west, and we on the east side of the river. The variation was 53° 47′ 54″ E. ; being an increase of 7° 22′ 2″ since 1821, or 26 minutes per annum. There was but one diurnal tide, and the rise and fall of the water varied from five to seven inches. At this date I find,