428 M CLURE'S EXPLORATIONS. 



once more saved ; though still so tightly was she beset, 

 that there was not room to drop a lead-line down round 

 the vessel, and the copper upon her bottom was hang- 

 ing in shreds, or rolled up like brown paper. By mid- 

 night the ice was stationary, and everything quiet. 



They were now upon the north-west extreme of 

 Banks's Land, and here officers and men rambled into 

 the interior, which they did not find so sterile as the 

 view from the sea had led them to expect. Traces of 

 musk-oxen and deer abounded, and both were seen ; 

 but perhaps the most extraordinary discovery of all was 

 a great accumulation of fossil trees, as well as frag- 

 ments not fossilized, lying over the whole extent of the 

 land, from an elevation of three hundred feet above the 

 sea to its immediate level. Writing on the 27th of 

 August, M'Clure says : " I walked to-day a short dis- 

 tance into the interior ; the snow that had fallen last 

 night lay unthawed upon the high grounds, rendering 

 the prospect most cheerless. The hills are very remark 

 able, many of them peaked, and standing isolated from 

 each other by precipitous gorges. The summits of these 

 hills are about three hundred feet high, and nothing can 

 be more wildly picturesque than the gorges which lie 

 between them. From the summit of these singularly- 

 formed hills to their base, abundance of wood is to be 

 found ; and in many places layers of trees are visible, 

 some protruding twelve or fourteen feet, and so firm 

 that several people may jump on them without their 

 breaking : the largest trunk yet found measured one 

 foot seven inches in diameter." 



Again, on September 5th, some miles from the hills 

 just alluded to, M'Clure says : " I entered a ravine some 

 miles inland, and found the north side of it, for a 

 depth of forty feet from the surface, composed of one 

 mass of wood similar to what I had before seen. The 



