Coronation Gulf

Then he turned his gaze and slowly took in the circle of the world that remained to him now that Bill was gone.

near the horizon the sun was smouldering dimly almost obscured by formless mists and vapours which gave an impression of mass and density without outline or tangibility the man pulled out his watch the while resting his weight on one leg it was four o'clock and as the season was near the last of july or first of august he did not know the precise date within a week or two he knew that the sun roughly marked the northwest he looked to the south and knew that somewhere beyond those bleak hills lay the great bear lake also he knew that in that direction the arctic circle cut its forbidding way across the canadian barrens This stream in which he stood was a feeder to the Copper Mine River, which in turn flowed north and emptied into Coronation Gulf and the Arctic Ocean.

He'd never been there, but he'd seen it once, on a Hudson Bay Company chart.

Again his gaze completed the circle of the world around him.

This wide and sluggish river was the Copper Mine.

That shining sea was the Arctic Ocean.

That ship was a whaler, strayed east, far east, from the mouth of the Mackenzie, and it was lying at anchor in Coronation Gulf.

He remembered the Hudson Bay Company chart he had seen long ago, and it was all clear and reasonable to him.