I was not a little astonished to find, from my own and Mr.
Ross's observations, that there was on the other side of the point
a broad and apparently navigable channel, through which the tide
was setting to the northward, at the rate of three or four miles
an hour. I am thus minute in the discovery of this channel, which
afterward promised to be of no small importance, to show how
nearly such a place may be approached without the slightest
suspicion being entertained of its existence, and the consequent
necessity of _close_ examination wherever a passage is to be
sought for.
We continued our examination, and I despatched Mr. Sherer to the
ships for a fresh supply of provisions. On his return on the 10th
we proceeded to the westward. In running along the coast with a
fresh and favourable breeze, we observed three persons standing on
a hill, and, as we continued our course, they followed us at full
speed along the rocks. Having sailed into a small sheltered bay, I
went up, accompanied by Mr. Bushnan, to meet them on the hills
above us. In sailing along the shore we had heard them call out
loudly to us, and observed them frequently lift something which
they held in their hands; but, on coming up to them, they remained
so perfectly mute and motionless, that, accustomed as we had been
to the noisy importunities of their more sophisticated brethren,
we could scarcely believe them to be Esquimaux.
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