Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/322

292 march I adopted was as follows:—We set out at 7 or 8 A.M., after breakfasting (which lessened the loads), and obtaining observations for longitude; and travelled for ten hours, exclusive of a halt of half an hour at noon to procure the latitude and variation. With their burdens the men advanced fully two miles an hour; our daily progress thus averaging twenty geographical, or twenty-three English miles. A fatigue party of three men attended us to our first encampment. About the middle of this day's journey we passed the extreme point to which Sir John Franklin and his officers walked in 1821. A little farther we found several old Esquimaux camping-places, and human skulls and bones were seen in various situations. One skeleton lay alongside that of a musk-bull, in such a manner as rendered it extremely probable that the dying beast had gored the hapless hunter. The coast-line continued low; our road alternately leading over sand, sharp stones, through swamps and rivulets. Large boulder rocks rose here and there upon the shore and acclivities. The ice all along was forcibly crushed upon the beach, the edging of water being so shallow that the gulls waded betwixt the ice and the sand. During the greater part of the day we were drenched with rain. The land preserved its north-north-east direction