Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/417

Rh his nose to the sky with a most audible snore, was treacherously shot by two of my men, at the same instant as we darted past. Unlike those pierced through the head while awake, this monster floated dead on the surface; but the waves were too rough to admit of his being taken on board, which I regretted, on account of his handsome spotted hide.

At the end of thirty miles we fell in with the first islands, which stretch from thence, in a chain of stratified trap cliffs, to within a league of Cape Barrow. Passing this bold headland at sunset, we ran on as fair as Wentzel River, which we reached at 10 P. M., and encamped. Our poor fellows absolutely capered and whooped for joy on finding the beach strewed with drift wood, and enjoyied once more the luxury of a rousing fire, to which we had been strangers since crossing Bathurst Inlet in July.

Next day we were again under sail with the dawn, 4 A. M., and were felicitating ourselves on our extraordinary good-fortune, when the lowering sky and cross swell, that succeeded a suspicious lull, too plainly told us of an approaching change. Before evening a furious north-west gale suddenly sprang up, and raised so heavy a surf upon the rocks as rendered it a critical 2 C 2