We had not seen either deer or their tracks through the day, and this circumstance, joined to the disappointment of not discovering the lake, rendered our voyagers very desponding, and the meagre supper of tripe de roche was little calculated to elevate their spirits.

They now threatened to throw away their bundles and quit us, which rash act they would probably have committed if they had known what track to pursue.
September 21.
We set out at seven this morning in dark foggy weather and changed our course two points to the westward.

The party were very feeble and the men much dispirited; we made slow progress, having to march over a hilly and very rugged country.
Just before noon the sun beamed through the haze for the first time for six days and we obtained an observation in latitude 65 degrees 7 minutes 06 seconds North, which was six miles to the southward of that part of Point Lake to the way our course was directed.

By this observation we discovered that we had kept to the eastward of the proper course, which may be attributed partly to the difficulty of preserving a straight line through an unknown country, unassisted by celestial observations and in such thick weather that our view was often limited to a few hundred yards, but chiefly to our total ignorance of the amount of the variation of the compass.
We altered the course immediately to west-south-west and fired guns to apprise the hunters who were out of our view and ignorant of our having done so.

After walking about two miles we waited to collect the stragglers.