Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/383

Rh men, and about sixty persons in all; most of whom took to their heels at first, but by-and-by returned, and received our two men kindly, though they did not allow them to enter their tents. Among them was the family seen by Mr. Dease at the mouth of the Coppermine the year before, and who, as we already knew, had carried away the rich present left for them on our return from the sea. This camp had passed the winter seal-hunting, on a groupe of islands within view of the coast, and were now bound on their annual inland rounds. They seemed rather better off than Awallook's smaller party; but our dull interpreter could add nothing to our own surmises regarding their mode of life, and the extent of their peregrinations. We had, in fact, accurately guessed the whole little circle of their lives.

Emerging from the Coppermine on the 3rd of July, our first day's progress was only five miles, the first week's but twenty, and it was the 18th before we could attain Cape Barrow. Just as we had effected a landing through the ice, an enormous mass of rock fell, with a loud crash, from one of the opposite islands, several miles distant. I seized upon this otherwise trivial incident as a 2 A