RESOLUTION ISLAND. 29 



seemed, connected with these, a ridge of heights 

 rounder and more regular, but all bare and deso- 

 late, without one tinge of green to relieve the 

 sombre picture, ■ — such was the forbidding aspect 

 of this unsocial coast. After divine service the 

 boat was again sent for water, which was found 

 to be of excellent quality, and our stock was in- 

 creased to eleven tuns, — a supply amply suffi- 

 cient, however long our run might prove to be. 

 Throughout the 1st of August we continued 

 to push our way through the yielding masses, 

 with no further mischief than a few thumps and 

 grindings. 



We were now fast approaching Cape Chud- 

 leigh and Button's Isles, and, not long after- 

 wards, land was descried to the N. E., which 

 we knew to be Resolution Island, and the land 

 to the westward of it, when suddenly a delta of 

 ice appeared in front of us, so close as to defy 

 all attempts to penetrate it. Of the navigable 

 ' lanes' at its sides one led considerably to the 

 east, and the other branched immediately along 

 the Labrador coast beyond Button's Isles, from 

 thence apparently leading into open water. My 

 general plan was to have kept the north shore 

 close aboard, after the example of the able 

 officers who had preceded me on these services; 

 and, indeed, of the Hudson's Bay ships, which 



