Descending the Mackenzie, Simpson pushed on along the coast, passing and naming the Colville river. When stopped by ice he resolved to reach Cape Barrow by land. He took eight men each with a load of 40 lb., including pemmican and flour, a blanket, ammunition and instruments, and one man carried a canvas canoe. They encountered very bad weather, but they reached the long low spit of land which Captain Beechey had named Cape Barrow, and were welcomed by the Eskimos settled there. Simpson returned to the Mackenzie, and ascended that river to his winter quarters at Fort Confidence. In the following year Simpson went down the Coppermine river, to discover the coast to the eastward. On the 17th of July, 1838, the voyage was commenced. On reaching Cape Turnagain, Franklin’s furthest point, Simpson went on by land with five of the Company’s servants and two Indians. Each man carried a weight of 50 lb., including a tent, a canvas canoe, a kettle, two axes, and provisions for ten days. Open water was seen along the shores of Victoria Island while the continental coast was choked with ice. The party, after this excursion on foot, returned by the Coppermine to Fort Confidence to winter. On June 15th, 1839, Simpson set out again for the Coppermine river on foot, arriving where three men had been left in charge of the boat and baggage. The boat sailed past Cape Turnagain, and on the 11th of August the discoverers came to the strait, about ten miles wide, between the continent and King William Island. It was named Simpson Strait. On the 12th there was a tremendous thunderstorm, with torrents of rain, and the next day they reached Cape Ogle at the mouth of the Great Fish River. On the 16th Simpson landed on Montreal Island, where a depôt left by Back was found. He then crossed the strait to King William Island and explored its southern coast for nearly 60 miles, until it turned north at Cape Herschel, where a lofty cairn was erected, on August 26th, 1839. They also went eastward along the American coast beyond the Great Fish River, calling their furthest point after their boats “Castor and Pollux.” In returning, Simpson explored the south coast of Victoria Island.