THE STRAIT. 47 



shore. We approached to within ahoiit ten 1824. 

 miles of Cape Wolstenholm hefore evening, August. 

 the bearing of which, with that of Diggs's Is- 

 lands, was taken. 



The land hereabouts has a very remarkable 

 appearance, being broken into high perpendi- 

 cular bluiFs, of from six to eight hundred feet, 

 between which the rocks were split into deep 

 ravines, descending abruptly to the waters 

 edge ; and, at a few miles distance, giving the 

 idea of their being the entrances to narrow 

 fiords. The rocks are apparently of gneiss, 

 the strata of which dips, with a considerable 

 curve, to the northward. In the course of the 

 day we passed many streams of ice, all trend- 

 ing north-west and south-east, and large flocks 

 of looms^ with a few eider ducks, were seen. 



We were off Cape Wolstenholm by the 

 morning of the 20th, and in the afternoon 

 abreast of Diggs's Islands, where we found the 

 sea very full of ice. It now fell calm, and 

 continued so with rain and fog all night. 



The morning of the 21st was fine, with suf- 

 ficient of a variable wind to carry us through a 

 quantity of ice, lying in a close stream of 

 three miles width. Salisbury and Notting- 

 ham Islands, with some apparently detached 



