Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/315

Rh my cutting them off from the land, they took to the ice, and soon galloped out of reach. The moon was visible to-night, but it was a passing glimpse, and she soon vanished amidst fog and storm. The following day was marked by nothing but fog and rain, with a gale from the north-west.

On the 9th the ice in Walker and Riley bays at length broke up, and we crossed them under sail, with a fresh breeze from the northward. The water for the first time tasted truly salt. We landed at Cape Flinders to breakfast, where a lump of galena was found among the rocks. A piece of wood was also picked up, fashioned like a small fish; an invention probably used by the Esquimaux to lure trout and other fish to holes cut in the ice, where they stand ready to spear them. Immediately on doubling the cape, the ice once more put a stop to our progress. To reach this point, which in a direct line is hardly forty miles from Cape Barrow, we had performed a circuit of one hundred and forty. We should not, however, have regretted this labour, had it not been attended by so great a sacrifice of time, without any melioration of our prospects. The tents were pitched on a beach of sharp stones, the size of a man's fist, and larger, which our men humorously styled "north-west