Twelve Esquimaux and a boy visited us on the 23rd; among whom was the man (named Shi-ma-kuk) to whom the sledge belonged, part of which we had used for fuel when near Cape Lady Pelly with the boat. He was now rewarded, and apparently so much to his satisfaction that he would have had no objections to have another sledge burnt on the same terms. They reported that the bay, to the west of Melville Peninsula, had been packed full of ice ever since we were over there, until a few days before they came away, when there was some open water to be seen. Besides purchasing five dozen rein-deer tongues, a seal-skin full of oil, and some other articles, we added two good dogs to our team. Among other information they told me that there was an island in Akkoolee (the large bay west of Melville Peninsula,) named Sha-took, (which means low or flat,) on which large trees grew; but they acknowledged that none of them had ever been on the island, although they had been near enough to see the trees distinctly. In this I believe their imaginations had deceived them, aided perhaps in some degree by a peculiar state of the atmosphere, during which the appearance of the land has been so distorted that it has been mistaken for woods. Some round sticks, probably spars belonging to one of the two vessels left in Prince Regent's Inlet, having been picked up along the west shore of Melville Peninsula, had no doubt strengthened the opinion they had formed. Two of their party whom we had never seen, were drowned in Miles Lake by falling through the ice; the one in chasing a deer, and the other, it is supposed, in attempting to save his companion. Our visitors left us on the 25th, promising to return soon with some deer-skin dresses. During the whole of the month we were occupied much the same way as in the previous one. Deer were numerous during the first part of it, but scarce latterly; sixty-nine were shot, but the produce of our nets had fallen very low, eighteen salmon and four trout being all we caught. The highest temperature of the month was 38°, whilst the lowest was 15°. Although there was a great deal of very stormy weather, there were some clear calm nights, of which I took advantage to obtain lunar distances. Two observatories had been built of snow, with a pillar of ice in each (at the suggestion of Captain Lefroy, R.A.), the one for the dip circle, the other for an horizontally suspended needle to try the effects of the aurora upon it. So much snow had fallen that it lay four feet deep on the roof of our meat store, and was near breaking the masts which supported it; so that we were obliged to raise its walls about a fathom to prevent such an occurrence in future.