no 



REASONS FOR OUR 



1824. affords tolerably good anchorage ; but as the 

 Sept. place in which their ships lay was a roadsted^ 

 we had no prospect of hanging on in it until 

 the ice secured us. There is, however, an ex- 

 cellent harbour in the island, in which the ves- 

 sels of the unfortunate Knight and Barlow 

 were wrecked, and all hands perished by fa- 

 mine in 1719-22*, but its entrance is danger- 

 ous -f-, and according to Ellis, who appears to 

 have surveyed it, there is a bar across its 

 mouth on which at sprifig tides there are only 

 thirteen feet;}: ; and as the Griper drew sixteen 

 feet, it was of course closed to us. 



With these difficulties before me, and anxious 

 to do what was best for the service ; consider- 

 ing that the company's ships were frequently 

 as late as this period in leaving the facto- 

 ries, I decided on endeavouring to reach Hud- 

 son's Strait, and proceeding to England, well 

 knowing that although our risk in again pass- 

 ing Southampton Island would be very great, 

 yet it was no worse than searching for winter 

 quarters, and Mansel Island being once passed, 

 we should be in comparative safety. In order, 

 however, to satisfy myself still farther in this 



* Barrow's Voyages to the Polar Regions, p. "272, 



t Ibid. p. 276. 



t Ellis. Voyage of the Dobbs and California, p. 148. 



