154 BELLOT STRAIT. Chap. X. 



speedily disperse ; — it is no wonder that we should feel 

 elated at such a glorious prospect, and content to abide our 

 time in the security of Depot Bay. A feeling of tranquillity 

 — of earnest, hearty satisfaction — has come over us. There 

 is no appearance amongst us of anything boastful ; we have 

 all experienced too keenly the vicissitudes of arctic voyaging 

 to admit of such a feeling. 



At the turn of tide we perceived that we were being 

 carried, together with the pack, back to the eastward ; every 

 moment our velocity was increased, and presently we were 

 dismayed at seeing grounded ice near us, but were very 

 quickly swept past it at the rate of nearly six miles an hour, 

 though within 200 yards of the rocks, and of instant destruc- 

 tion ! As soon as we possibly could, we got clear of the 

 packed ice, and left it to be wildly hurled about by various 

 whirlpools and rushes of the tide, until finally carried out 

 into Brentford Bay. The ice-masses were large, and dashed 

 violently against each other, and the rocks lay at some 

 distance off the southern shore ; we had a fortunate escape 

 from such dangerous company. After anchoring again in 

 Depot Bay, a large stock of provisions and a record of our 

 proceedings were landed, as there seems every probability of 

 advancing into the western sea in a very few days. 



The appearance of Bellot Strait is precisely that of a 

 Greenland fiord; it is about 20 miles long and scarcely 

 a mile wide in the narrowest part, and there its depth 

 within a quarter of a mile of the north shore, was ascer- 

 tained to be 400 feet. Its granitic shores are bold and lofty, 

 with a very respectable sprinkling of vegetation for lat. 72 . 

 Some of the hill-ranges rise to about 1500 or 1600 feet 

 above the sea. 



The low land eastward of Depot Bay is composed of 

 limestone, destitute alike of fossils and vegetation. The 

 granite commences upon the west shore of Depot Bay, and 



