134 ACCOUNT OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 



mile and a qtiarter from the shore, and many others 

 at smaller distances. 



The next day, July 27., the weather continuing 

 fine, we stood into King's 13ay, when I was enabled 

 to make considerable additions to a survey of the 

 coast which I began in the year 1815, and conti- 

 nued throughout our stay near shore on this occa- 

 sion. Six miles within the headlands forming the 

 entrance of the bay, we had no soundings with fifty 

 or sixty fathoms of line within a fourth of a mile 

 of the shore on the north side ; nor indeed did we 

 ever strike th« bottom while we remained in the bay. 



I landed on the north side near an iceberg, where a 

 small tract of rising ground was terminated by a 

 perpendicular precipice of perhaps a thousand feet 

 in height. This cliff was composed of a kind of 

 bluish-grey marble, but, like all the rocks we had yet 

 seen, was full of fissures in every direction. At a 

 distance, it appeared like basaltic columns ; but on 

 nearer approach we found the resemblance was de- 

 rived from deep channels formed in the perpendi- 

 cular face, at intervals of a few fathoms asunder. 

 Some of the cliffs on the opposite side of the bay 

 had a similar appearance. The bank where we 

 landed was covered with vegetation, and afforded 

 beautifiil specimens of several plants. A hut was 

 erected on the beach, which appeared to have been 

 inhabited within a few weeks. Towards the sea- 

 edge, the stones were so small, that few pieces could 



