These natives, whose entire lives had been spent between the Coppermine River and Point Barrow, knew nothing of Franklin’s party, and it was therefore concluded by Captain M’Clure that the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ had not been lost on these shores. For the next four or five hundred miles they skirted slowly the coast, part of the time in such shallow water that they ran aground, but fortunately without damage to the ship. The narrow lanes opening in the ice made it often necessary to retrace their course, but by the 21st of August they had passed the mouth of the Mackenzie River, and made the Pelly Islands. Upon reaching Warren Point, natives were seen on shore, and Captain M’Clure, desiring, if possible, to send despatches by them to the Hudson Bay Company’s posts on the Mackenzie, the boats were ordered out. It was found that these Eskimos had no communication with the Mackenzie, being at war with the neighbouring tribes, and having had several skirmishes with the Indians of that quarter. A chief of the tribe had a flat brass button suspended from his ear, and in explanation of where he got it, he replied: “It had been taken from a white man, who had been killed by one of his tribe. The white man belonged to a party which had landed at Point Warren, and there built a house; nobody knew how they came, as they had no boat, but they went inland. The man killed had strayed from the party, and he (the chief) and his son had buried him upon a hill at a little distance.” It could not be ascertained just when this event occurred, and though Captain M’Clure tried to investigate the matter, only two very old wooden huts were found, and no grave of the white man was discovered. Natives were constantly encountered as the _Investigator_ proceeded, and though they seemed at first hostile and disinclined to open communication, they invariably became friendly and gratefully accepted the various presents bestowed upon them. On September 5, Captain M’Clure writes:—