CHAPTER VIII.

Departure from Oppernavik.  Pass the Ikkerasak of Killinek.  Whirlpools.  The coast takes a southerly direction.  Meeting with Esquimaux from the Ungava country, who had never seen an European.  Anchor at Omanek.  High tides.  Drift-wood.  Double Cape Uibvaksoak.  Distant view of Akpatok.

August 2d.—­Having made all needful preparations for the voyage, a gentle but favourable wind, and occasional rowing, brought us, about nine in the morning, to the entrance of the much dreaded Ikkerasak.  The weather was pleasant and warm, not a flake of ice was to be seen, and all our fear and anxiety had subsided.  Our minds were attuned to praise and thanksgiving for the providential preservation we had experienced yesterday.  We performed our morning devotions on deck, and all joined in a joyful hallelujah to God our Saviour, which was sweetly repeated by echoes among the mountains and precipices on either side.  The scripture-text appointed in the Church of the United Brethren for this day being read, it seemed as if addressed particularly to us, separated as we felt ourselves, in these lonely regions, from the rest of the inhabitants of the earth:  “See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no God with me:  I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal.” Deut. 32, 39.  We rejoiced, that we were in the hands of a gracious and merciful God and Father, who would not forsake us, but deal with us according to his wonted mercy and favour.

The Ikkerasak, (or strait), is about ten miles in length; the land on each side high and rocky, and in some places precipitous, but there appeared no rocks in the strait itself.  The water is deep and clear.  Its mouth is wide, and soon after entering, a bay opens to the left, which by an inlet only just wide enough to admit a boat, communicates with a lagoon of considerable magnitude, in which lies an island on its western bank.  Beyond this bay, the passage narrows and consequently the stream, always setting from N. to S. grows more rapid.  Here the mountains on both sides rise to a great height.  Having proceeded for two miles in a narrow channel, the strait opens again, but afterwards contracts to about 1000 yards across; immediately beyond which, the left coast turns to the south.  As the tide ebbs regularly with the current from N. to S. along the whole coast of Labrador, the current through the strait is most violent during its fall, and less, when resisted by its influx on rising.

We were taught to expect much danger in passing certain eddies or whirlpools in the narrow parts of the straits, and were therefore continually upon the look-out for them.  When we passed the first narrow channel, at 12 P.M. it being low water, no whirlpool was perceptible.  Having sailed on for little more than half an hour, with wind and tide in our favour, we reached the second.  Here, indeed, we discovered a whirlpool, but of no