The traverse however was made; we were then near a high rocky lee shore on which a heavy surf was beating.  The wind being on the beam, the canoes drifted fast to leeward and, on rounding a point, the recoil of the sea from the rocks was so great that they were with difficulty kept from foundering.  We looked in vain for a sheltered bay to land in but at length, being unable to weather another point, we were obliged to put ashore on the open beach which fortunately was sandy at this spot.  The debarkation was effected fortunately without further injury than splitting the head of the second canoe, which was easily repaired.

Our encampment being near the spot where we killed the deer on the 11th, almost the whole party went out to hunt, but returned in the evening without having seen any game.  The berries however were ripe and plentiful and with the addition of some country tea furnished a supper.  There were some showers in the afternoon and the weather was cold, the thermometer being 42 degrees, but the evening and night were calm and fine.  It may be remarked that the mosquitoes disappeared when the late gales commenced.

August 24.

Embarking at three A.M. we stretched across the eastern entrance of Bathurst’s Inlet and arrived at an island which I have named after the Right Honourable Colonel Barry of Newton Barry.  Some deer being seen on the beach the hunters went in pursuit of them and succeeded in killing three females which enabled us to save our last remaining meal of pemmican.  They saw also some fresh tracks of musk-oxen on the banks of a small stream which flowed into a lake in the centre of the island.  These animals must have crossed a channel at least three miles wide to reach the nearest of these islands.  Some specimens of variegated pebbles and jasper were found here embedded in the amygdaloidal rock.

Reembarking at two P.M. and continuing through what was supposed to be a channel between two islands we found our passage barred by a gravelly isthmus of only ten yards in width; the canoes and cargoes were carried across it and we passed into Bathurst’s Inlet through another similar channel bounded on both sides by steep rocky hills.  The wind then changing from South-East to North-West brought heavy rain, and we encamped at seven P.M. having advanced eighteen miles.

August 25.

Starting this morning with a fresh breeze in our favour we soon reached that part of Barry’s Island where the canoes were detained on the 2nd and 3rd of this month and, contrary to what we then experienced, the deer were now plentiful.  The hunters killed two and relieved us from all apprehension of immediate want of food.  From their assembling at this time in such numbers on the islands nearest to the coast we conjectured that they were about to retire to the main shore.  Those we saw were generally females with their young and all of them very lean.