Had I been aware of the fact several days' harassing march and a disastrous accident would have been prevented by keeping on the western side of the lake instead of crossing the river.

We were informed also that this river is the Anatessy or River of Strangers and is supposed to fall into Bathurst's Inlet, but although the Indians have visited its mouth their description was not sufficient to identify it with any of the rivers whose mouths we had seen.

It probably discharges itself in that part of the coast which was hid from our view by Goulbourn's or Elliott's Islands.
September 10.
We had a cold north wind and the atmosphere was foggy.

The thermometer 18 degrees at five A.M.In the course of our march this morning we passed many small lakes and the ground, becoming higher and more hilly as we receded from the river, was covered to a much greater depth with snow.
This rendered walking not only extremely laborious but also hazardous in the highest degree, for the sides of the hills, as is usual throughout the barren grounds, abounding in accumulations of large angular stones, it often happened that the men fell into the interstices with their loads on their backs, being deceived by the smooth appearance of the drifted snow.

If anyone had broken a limb here his fate would have been melancholy indeed; we could neither have remained with him nor carried him on.