350 FIRST GRINNELL EXPEDITION. 



be Esquimaux, who, by signs, professed great friend- 

 ship, and endeavored to get the voyagers to accompany 

 them to their homes beyond the hills. They declined ; 

 and, as soon as they returned to the vessel, the expedi- 

 tion again pushed forward, and made its way to Cape 

 Dudley Digges, which they reached on the 7th of 

 August. 



At Cape Dudley Digges they sighted the Crimson 

 CliiFs, a name suggested by the patches of red snow, 

 which in the distance impart a rose-hue color to the 

 acclivities. These lofty cliffs are of dark brown stone. 

 It was a magnificent sight, in that cold region, to see 

 such an apparently warm object standing out in bold 

 relief against the dark blue back-ground Ov' %, polar sky. 

 This was the most northern point to which the expedi- 

 tion penetrated. The whole coast which they had 

 passed from Disco to this cape is high, rugged, and 

 barren, only some of the low points, stretching into the 

 sea, bearing a species of dwarf fir. North-east from the 

 cape rise the Arctic Highlands, to an unknown altitude ; 

 and, stretching away northward, was the then unex- 

 plored Smith's Sound, filled with impenetrable ice. 



From Cape Dudley Digges, the Advance and Rescue, 

 beating against wind and tide in the midst of the ice- 

 fields, made Wolstenholme Sound, and then, changing 

 their course to the south-west, emerged from the fields 

 into the open waters of Lancaster Sound. Here, on the 

 18th of August, 1850, they encountered a tremendous 

 gale, which lasted about twenty-four hours. The two 

 vessels parted company during the storm, and remained 

 separate several days. Across Lancaster Sound, the 

 Advance made her way to Barrow's Straits, and on the 

 22d discovered the Prince Albert on the southern shore 

 of the straits, near Leopold Island, a mass of lofty, pre- 

 cipitous rocks, dark and barren, and hooded and draped 



