84 ACCOUNT OF THE xYRCTIC REGIONS. 



to several headlands and islands, and returned ta 

 England in the autumn of 1613. 



In the year 1615, Kobert ByloT, accompa- 

 nied by the celebrated William Baffin as mate and 

 companion, with one small vessel, visited the same 

 quarter, and examined the eastern side of South- 

 ampton Island, as high as latitude 65"" 26'. After 

 spending three months in the frozen sea, without 

 making any considerable discovery, they returned 

 to England. The next year, (I6l6), Bylot, accom- 

 panied by William Baffin as Pilot, proceeded 

 to the examination of the sea lying north and west 

 of Davis' Strait. They had but one vessel, the 

 Discovery, of fifty-five tons burden, which had be- 

 fore been employed in four similar voyages, under 

 Hudson in 1610, Button in 1612, Gibbon in 1614, 

 and Bylot in the preceding year. In this little 

 vessel, with seventeen persons on board, Baffin 

 traced the west coast of Greenland up Davis' Strait, 

 as high as the extremity of the extensive sea in 

 the 78th degree of latitude, now named after him, as 

 the discoverer ; proceeded round by the western 

 part of the bay as near the shore as the ice would 

 permit, and down to the latitude of Q5° 40' ; ha- 

 ving seen land, probably, all the way, excepting in 

 the openings of some of the sounds, and in the in- 

 terval between the latitudes of 70" 30' and 68% 

 where he fell in Avith a large body of ice, and was 

 imdcr the necessity of taking- a circuit to the east-» 

 vranl. 



