MONTREAL ISLAND. 399 



ence. Towards night some men, who had been 

 despatched to the westward, reported that we 

 were not on the main shore, but on a large island 

 adjoining to it ; a discovery which they had ac- 

 cidentally made by following two deer until they 

 swam across the narrow channel of separation. 

 Upon this I called the place Montreal Island, 

 in commemoration of the attention we had re- 

 ceived from the public-spirited and hospitable 

 inhabitants of that city; and as well from the ex- 

 istence of an inner passage, as from my own ob- 

 servation of the ice, I began again to entertain a 

 hope that a south-west gale would clear a way 

 for us, though in the direction towards which we 

 were bound there was at present one compact 

 mass before us to the horizon. A tide-pole which 

 we set up showed a rise of twelve inches ; the 

 highest being at ll h 40 m a.m., and the lowest 

 at T 20 ra p.M. There may, however, in this be 

 an error of a few minutes, and it is not impro- 

 bable that the irregularity may have been aug- 

 mented by the vast floating bodies of ice and 

 other accidental causes. 



August 3d. — Parties were sent out in dif- 

 ferent directions to see if there was any possibi- 

 lity of creeping alongshore among the grounded 

 pieces, but they were all so close that the at- 

 tempt would have been useless. Indeed, under 

 the most favourable circumstances we could only 



