July, 1858. THE WEST-LAND. 121 



which he has hitherto used, to the large and accurate one 

 at the end of the book. 



This evening we are endeavouring to steam in towards 

 the West-land, and fancy we can trace with the crow's-nest 

 telescope a practicable route through the intervening ice- 

 mazes to a faint streak of water along the shore. This sort 

 of navigation is not only anxious, but wearying. To me it 

 seems as if several months instead of only eight days had 

 elapsed since we left Cape York. We are constantly 

 wondering what our whaling friends are about, and where 

 they are. 



\\tli. — The faint streak of water seen on the night of the 

 10th proved to be an extensive sheet to leeward of Cobourg 

 Island. We reached it next morning. Jones' Sound ap- 

 peared open, and a slight swell reached us from it, but all 

 along the shore there was close pack. Although but little 

 water was visible to the southward, we persevered in that 

 direction, and, as the ice was rapidly moving offshore under 

 the combined influence of wind and tide, we were only 

 occasionally detained. 



Two hundred and forty-two years ago to a day, I believe, 

 William Baffin sailed without hindrance along this coast 

 and discovered Lancaster Sound. What a very different 

 season he must have experienced ! 



Passing near Cape Horsburgh we approached De Ros 

 Islet at midnight. 1 The air being very calm and still, the 



1 The whaler ' Queen,' of Peterhead, spent the winter of 1865-6 in a 

 small harbour, lat. 74 44' N., and long. 8o° W., about four leagues 

 south-westward of De Ros Islet, and between Point Beatrice and Hope's 

 Monument. A channel was discovered between Bank's Bay and Hyde 

 Bay, thus making an Island of what appears on our charts as a con- 

 tinuous coast line. About 20 foxes, 3 lemmings, a wolf, and 150 

 ptarmigan, besides some reindeer's antlers, and the skeleton of a musk 

 ox, were seen on the land ; and upon the ice or sea coast, 30 bears, and 

 70 or 80 walruses. No Esquimaux were met with, although their 



