Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/356

326 two companions returned, on short commons, to the establishment. I regretted this disappointment the more, as it prevented me from exploring the remaining ramifications of the south-east corner or angle of M'Tavish Bay, which terminates this magnificent inland sea. These slender but numerous arms are concealed by the large island where Dr. Richardson and Lieut. Kendall's survey in 1826, and mine in 1838, met. Some of them I passed through on the way to our rifled cache; but our couriers to and from Port Simpson, by way of Marten Lake, travelled a good day's journey farther southward, among numberless channels and islands, which I soon found it would be an endless business to examine. At a very short distance the shore appears uniform, though rugged; but, on approaching closer, and turning a rocky point or looking in behind an islet, a cove or creek is seen, ending apparently within gunshot, when, on advancing to make "assurance doubly sure," the wanderer is astonished to find a narrow winding channel, which, after a mile or two, expands into a wide arm, running away to an unknown distance among the hills and precipices of naked rock that form this truly primitive country. Crossing one of these branches on the way out, I asked my native guide how far it led. He, apprehending my desire of