M'CLURE'S EXPLORATIONS. 411 



cause, who, on their return, reported that the smoke 

 emanated from fifteen small mounds of volcanic appear, 

 ance, occup} T ing a space of about fifty yards, the place 

 strongly impregnated with sulphur, the lower mounds 

 being about thirty feet above the sea-level, the high- 

 est about fifty feet. The land in its vicinity was blue 

 clay, much intersected with ravines and deep water- 

 courses, varying in elevation from three hundred to five 

 hundred feet ; the mark of a reindeer was traced to a 

 small pond of water immediately above the mounds. 

 Notice of our having landed was left, which would not 

 long remain, as the cliff is evidently rapidly crumbling 

 away. Thus the mystery of the white shirts and tents 

 was most satisfactorily explained." 



At four A. M. of the 6th they were off the small 

 islands, near Cape Parry, bearing north-east-oy-north, 

 with a fine westerly breeze. The same day, high land 

 was observed on the port-bow, on the western shore of 

 which the main body of the ice rested. This was the 

 first sight obtained of terra incognita. Hitherto they 

 had been sailing along a shore which had in former 

 years been surveyed, on foot and in boats, by Franklin, 

 Back, Dease, Simpson, and others ; although, indeed, 

 theirs was the first ship that had sailed in these waters ; 

 but the land which now appeared to them on the left 

 bow was quite new. Accordingly, they hove to, and 

 landed and took possession in the name of her majesty, 

 calling it " Baring's Island," in honor of the first lord 

 of the Admiralty. The south cape of this land, a fine, 

 bold headland, rising almost perpendicularly to the 

 height of about a thousand feet, was named " Lord Nel- 

 son's Head.' 3 The latitude was found to be 71 6' north, 

 longitude 123 0' west. A note of their progress being 

 deposited here, they returned to the ship and sailed 

 along the eastern coast, as being freer from ice than 



