264 FLIGHT OF BIRDS. [CHAP.V. 



the ice so jammed in every part, it must have 

 required an astonishing impetus in the first in- 

 stance to make the effects felt so far. Nothing 

 indeed but a current from the north co-operating 

 with the tide, could in my opinion possibly have 

 brought about such a result. We had decidedly 

 gone more towards the outer point, which, even 

 when thrown up by refraction as all the land 

 was, appeared too low to answer the descrip- 

 tion of high coast given by Captain Lyon as 

 forming the Seahorse Point of Button. The land 

 formerly called the blue bluff was now nearly 

 abeam, and appeared, as well as the snow per- 

 mitted me to judge, to be composed of rocks, in 

 some of which were gullies. It seemed the eastern 

 entrance to the Inlet, Strait, or Bay frequently 

 alluded to before ; and receding from it further 

 south and east, the land bending in a semi-lunar 

 form terminated in two bold and tolerably high 

 hills, which are perhaps the most remarkable 

 along the whole coast as far as Cape Bylot. 

 Their dome-like summits assumed a more an- 

 gular outline as we altered the bearings, and 

 the coast had some bays and cliffs. A novelty 

 presented itself in the shape of a flight of birds, 

 supposed to have been dovekies, which were seen 

 flying from the land towards the north, most 

 likely in search of open water. At noon the 

 black thermometer was 36° + , the plain one 



