On the 11th, in lat. 69 deg. 42 min.  N., long. 132 deg. 10 min.  W., the water was perfectly salt, the sea partially covered with drift ice, and no land visible to seaward.  They experienced considerable difficulty in crossing the estuaries of several rivers, which were deemed to be outlets of the shallow channels of the Mackenzie, that had been left to the eastward.  They suffered, besides, some detention from ice and bad weather; and it was not until the 18th of July that, in lat. 70 deg. 37 min., long. 126 deg. 52 min.  N., they got entirely clear of the widely spreading mouths of the Mackenzie, and of a large lake of brackish water, which seems to receive one of the branches of that river.  The navigation across these wide estuaries was very embarrassing.

This danger was gladly exchanged for a coasting voyage in the open sea.  They rounded Cape Parry, in lat. 70 deg. 8 min.  N., long. 123 deg.  W.; Cape Krusenstern in lat. 60 deg. 46 min.  N., long. 114 deg. 45 min.  W.; and entered George the IVth Coronation Gulf, by the Dolphin and Union Straits (so named after the boats), which brought them within sight of Cape Barrow, and two degrees of longitude to the eastward of the coppermine river.  Their sea voyage terminated as beforementioned, on the 8th of August, by their actually entering that river.

Although they saw much heavy floe ice, some of it aground even in nine fathom water, yet none of it bore marks of being more than one season old; and from the heights of land they could discern lanes of open water outside,—­so that a ship, properly strengthened for such a voyage, could make way through it with a favouring breeze.

Throughout the whole line of coast they had regular tides, the flood setting from the eastward; the rise and fall being from a foot to twenty inches.  In the Dolphin and Union Straits, the current in the height of flood and ebb exceeded two miles an hour.  They found drift timber everywhere, and a large portion of it, on many parts of the coast, lay in a line from ten to fifteen, and in some places upwards of twenty feet, above the ordinary spring-tide water-mark, apparently thrown up by a heavy sea.

After the first rapid, in the coppermine river, Dr. Richardson’s party abandoned the boats, with the remainder of their cargoes of provision, iron-work, beads, &c. to the first party of Esquimaux which should chance to pass that way; and on the 10th of August set out by land, with ten days’ provisions.

They reached the eastern end of Bear Lake, at the influx of Dease’s river, on the 18th, and remained there until the evening of the 24th, before the boats arrived to convey them to Fort Franklin.

The person to whom the boats were entrusted, and who was sent off to Fort Franklin on the 6th of August, did not arrive on the latest day appointed for his appearance (the 20th), from a belief that Dr. Richardson’s party would never return, and that he should make a needless voyage:  and after the 20th Dr. Richardson was obliged to distribute his party into hunting and fishing groups, to procure subsistence.  Dr. Richardson collected his party for embarkation on the evening of the 28th; and they reached the fort, after an absence from it of seventy-one days, the whole party in perfect health.