We perceived, on landing, by the driving of the loose pieces of ice, that the tide was running strongly to the eastward, through the channel we had passed along, and that it continued to do so, until ten this morning, during which time the water was falling. It changed at ten, and the water rose one foot before one P.M. This observation would indicate the flood to come from the eastward, though contrary to what was remarked at Barter Island the day before; but in a sea so closely beset with ice, no accurate observations as to the direction of the tide could be obtained.
The Rocky Mountains either terminated abreast of our present situation, or receded so far to the southward as to be imperceptible from the coast a few miles beyond this reef. The ice being somewhat loosened by the flood tide, we embarked at one P.M., to force the boats through the narrow channels, and in the course of two hours reached Point Brownlow, where we landed, for the purpose of ascertaining whether the ice could be avoided by passing into the bay that then opened to our view, trending to the south. We perceived that this bay was in every part flat, and strewed with stones; and that the only prospect of getting forward was by entering the ice again, and pushing to an island about two miles further to the west, which we reached after receiving several heavy blows in passing through the loose ice at the entrance of the strait, between the central reef and the island, where the pieces were much tossed by the tide.
The view from the south-east part of the island led us, at first, to suppose that we might proceed by keeping close to its south shore; but in making the attempt, the boats repeatedly took the ground, and we were obliged to seek a passage by the north side of the island. At the end of a mile in that direction we were stopped by the ice being unbroken from the shore, and closely packed to seaward. Since the day after our departure from the Mackenzie, when we first came to the ice, we had not witnessed a more unfavourable prospect than that before us. No water was to be seen, either from the tents, or from the different points of the island which we visited, for the purpose of examining into the state of the ice. We were now scantily supplied with fuel; the drift timber being covered by the ice high up the bank, except just where the boat had landed.