rag them over the shallow
parts. After four hours' labour, we reached the eastern part of the bay,
which I have had the pleasure of naming after my friend Captain
Beaufort, R.N., and which was then covered with ice. We had also the
happiness of finding a channel that led to seaward, which enabled us to
get on the outside of the reef; but as we pushed as close as we could to
the border of the packed ice, our situation, for the next four hours,
was attended with no little anxiety. The appearance of the clouds
bespoke the return of fog, and we were sailing with a strong breeze
through narrow channels, between heavy pieces of drift ice, on the
outside of a chain of reefs that stretched across Beaufort Bay, which we
knew could not be approached within a mile, owing to the shallowness of
the water.

Beyond Point Humphrys, the water being deep close to the coast, we
travelled in more security, though the ice was less open than before. We
halted to sup on a gravel reef that extends from the main shore to Point
Griffin, having run twenty-eight miles, the greatest distance we had
made on one day since our departure from the Mackenzie.

A black whale, and several seals, having been seen just before we
landed, the water now decidedly salt, and the ice driving with great
rapidity to the westward, were circumstances that we hailed with
heartfelt joy; as affording the prospect of getting speedily forward,
and in the evening we lost sight of Mount Conybeare, which had been
visible since the 9th of July. There were several huts on the reef, and
one large tent, capable of holding forty persons, which appeared to have
been lately occupied, besides eighteen sledges, that we supposed to have
been left by the men who had gone from Herschel Island, to exchange
their furs with the western Esquimaux. Among the baggage we found a
spoon, made out of the musk ox horn, like those used by the Canadian
voyagers. At six this evening we passed the termination of the British
Chain of Mountains, and had now arrived opposite the commencement of
another range, which I named after the late Count Romanzoff, Chancellor
of the Russian Empire, as a tribute of respect to the memory of that
distinguished patron and promoter of discovery and science.

Having taken the precaution of supplying ourselves with fresh water, we
quitted the reef, to proceed on our voyage under sail, but shortly
afterwards arrived at very heavy ice, apparently packed. We found,
however