CHAP. V.] LUNAR HALO. £0,1 



had gone so far to the north west, that at4 h p. m. 

 the blue bluff seen on the 11th, was in sight, and 

 the fact of an opening between it and the nearest 

 land of Point M'Clure, being now evident, it was 

 called Gore Island. The high hills too, which 

 were noted about the same time, were equally 

 visible, and proved to be the same, the principal 

 of which we had hitherto been calling the Conical 

 Hill, but now distinguished by the name of 

 Mount Minto, after the first Lord of the Ad- 

 miralty, and which every one had considered to 

 be quite distinct from those that had been passed. 

 At our first station two rather deep bays were 

 clearly made out, with low land to seaward, and 

 here the low land was somewhat nearer to us 

 than the high ; so that, although it was impossible 

 to discern whether there was any ice between the 

 two, I am not certain that the former may not 

 be islands stretching out from the latter. As 

 night drew on the wind got round to the N. E., 

 by which means the pack that inclosed the ship 

 became detached in one or two places from the 

 more seaward body, causing a lane of water to 

 appear. On the other hand, we commenced 

 going eastward, slantingly towards the shore. 



March 24th. There was a prismatic lunar halo 

 with paraselenae. In the morning we were more 

 to the eastward, but began to retrograde at 10 h . 

 By noon we had drawn closer to the land, and 



u 2 



