The nights were now illumined by a blazing sun and everything denoted the proximity of the sea. On landing at a deserted Esquimaux encampment, several pieces of whalebone were observed; also a place where train-oil had been spilt. Signs of vegetation grew rarer and rarer. [Sidenote: The explorer reaches the Arctic.] On the 12th of July the explorer reached what appears to have been an arm of the Arctic Sea. It was quite open to the westward, and by an observation the latitude was found to be 69°. All before them, as far as they could see, was a vast stretch of ice. They continued their course with difficulty fifteen miles to the western-most extremity of a high island, and then it was found impossible to proceed farther. Many other islands were seen to the eastward; but though they came to a grave, on which lay a bow, a paddle and a spear, they met no living human beings in those Arctic solitudes. The red fox and the reindeer, flocks of beautiful plover, some venerable white owls, and several large white gulls were the only natives. But Mackenzie knew he had triumphed; for he had, as he stood on the promontory of Whale Island, caught sight of a shoal of those marine night monsters from whom the island then received its name. Before returning, Mackenzie caused a post to be erected close to the tents, upon which the traveller engraved the latitude of the spot, his own name, the number of persons accompanying him, and the time they spent on the island. [Illustration: THE BUSHRANGER AND THE INDIANS.] [Illustration: A PORTAGE.] On the 16th of July they set out on their long journey to the fort. On the 21st, the sun, which for some time had never set, descended below the horizon, and on that day they were joined by eleven of the natives. These represented their tribe as numerous, and perpetually at war with the Esquimaux, who had broken a treaty into which they had seduced the Indians and had massacred many of them. On one occasion an Indian of a strange tribe beyond the mountains to the west endeavoured to draw for Mackenzie a map of that distant country with a stick upon the sand. It was a rude production, but gave the explorer an idea. The savage traced out a long point of land between two rivers. This isthmus he represented as running into the great lake, at the extremity of which, as he had been told by Indians of other nations, there was built a Benahulla Couin, or White Man's Fort. "This," says Mackenzie, "I took to be Oonalaska Fort, and consequently the river to the west to be Cook's River, and that the body of water or sea into which the river discharges itself at Whale Island communicated with Norton Sound." Mackenzie in vain endeavoured to procure a guide across the mountains; the natives refused to accompany him. On the 12th of September the party arrived in safety at Fort Chippewyan, having been absent one hundred and two days.