We paddled along the western shore with the intention of encamping but were prevented by the want of driftwood on the beach.  This induced us to make a traverse to an island where we put up at midnight, having found a small bay whose shores furnished us with a little firewood.  A heavy gale came on from the westward attended with constant rain, and one of the squalls overthrew our tents.  The course and distance made this day were north-east sixteen miles and a half.  I may here mention that Arctic Sound appeared the most convenient and perhaps the best place for ships to anchor that we had seen along the coast, at this season especially, when they might increase their stock of provision, if provided with good marksmen.  Deer are numerous in its vicinity, musk-oxen also may be found up Hood’s River, and the fine sandy bottom of the bays promises favourably for fishing with the seine.  The hills on the western side are even in their outline and slope gradually to the water’s edge.  The rocks give place to an alluvial sandy soil towards the bottom of the Sound, but on Banks’ Peninsula rocky eminences again prevail which are rugged and uneven but intersected by valleys, at this time green; along their base is a fine sandy beach.  From Point Wollaston to our encampment the coast is skirted with trap cliffs which have often a columnar form and are very difficult of access.  These cliffs lie in ranges parallel to the shore and the deer that we killed were feeding in small marshy grassy plats that lie in the valleys between them.

Being detained by the continuance of the gale on the 2nd of August some men were sent out to hunt and the officers visited the tops of the highest hills to ascertain the best channels to be pursued.  The wind abating at ten P.M. we embarked and paddled round the southern end of the island and continued our course to the south-east.  Much doubt at this time prevailed as to the land on the right being the main shore or merely a chain of islands.  The latter opinion was strengthened by the broken appearance of the land and the extensive view we had up Brown’s Channel (named after my friend Mr. Robert Brown) the mouth of which we passed and were in some apprehension of being led away from the main shore and, perhaps after passing through a group of islands, of coming to a traverse greater than we durst venture upon in canoes:  on the other hand the continuous appearance of the land on the north side of the channel and its tending to the southward excited the fear that we were entering a deep inlet.

In this state of doubt we landed often and endeavoured, from the summits of the highest hills adjoining the shore, to ascertain the true nature of the coast but in vain, and we continued paddling through the channel all night against a fresh breeze, which at half-past four increased to a violent gale and compelled us to land.  The gale diminished a short time after noon on the 3rd and permitted us to reembark and continue our voyage until four P.M., when it returned with its former violence and finally obliged us to encamp, having come twenty-four miles on a south-east three-quarter south course.