1853.] VIEW OF WELLINGTON CHANNEL. 288 



and it is one of the unpleasant duties connected with 

 search of the nature imposed on us, that the truth must 

 be proved, uot guessed. Forward we moved, and at 

 midnight, enjoying a brighter sun than we had experi- 

 enced for many days, halted to lunch at its eastern 

 depth, fully believing that our journeying in this direc- 

 tion was at an end. During the period allowed for this 

 ineal, I ascended the hill immediately above, and there 

 detected that two low, overlapping points, immediately 

 beneath, concealed a narrow channel connecting another 

 great bay, and that further progress was available at 

 least five miles, and in the distance an extensive floe- 

 covered sea could be traced to the horizon : that sea, 

 I knew at once, could be no other than the Wellington 



O 



Channel ; and thus were we rewarded for our persisting 

 against hope, and, I may say, strong opinion, by the dis- 

 covery which was now presented. 



Moving forward with much improved spirits, we soon 

 opened out a new scene, and passing through a very nar- 

 row gorge, not exceeding an eighth of a mile in width, 

 found ourselves within a spacious basin, extending to the 

 south-east and south-west. The ice within the points im- 

 mediately changed its character from the common smooth 

 travelling, snow-covered floe, to the bared, undulated ice 

 noticed generally in deep creeks, rendering our footing 

 very insecure, and sledge-travelling troublesome. About 

 four A.M. we reached the south-eastern angle of the basin, 

 where a narrow tortuous channel, still affording sledge 

 movement, appeared to connect the two seas by tidal 

 lakes, and this very apparent by the occurrence of fre- 

 quent pyramidal breaks, occasioned by the rise and fall 

 of tide over the rocks subjacent. 



