58 A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY 
At the same time that we are thus delighted with 
having the object of our hopes in sight, a sort of 
secret anxiety hovers occasionally over the mind, on 
recollecting that it has been affirmed, from ocular de- 
monstration, that the magnificent opening now before 
us is only a bay. It would be needless, if not improper, 
however, to enter into a lengthened detail of the rea- 
sons that might be adduced against that opinion, for 
such only can I call it ; let it suffice then, that there 
is at present every prospect of our being soon able to 
decide the subject in question, in a manner that will 
henceforth leave no doubt about the matter ; for the 
sea is quite clear to the westward as far as we can 
see, and we have a fine breeze of wind: it is not 
indeed directly in our favour, being from the N. W., 
but it is sufficiently so, if it continues, to enable us 
to get to the entrance of the Sound, as it is gratuit- 
ously called, before to-morrow morning. 
The number of whales that have been seen to-day 
is astonishing ; no fewer than fifty are said to have 
been seen in the course of one watch, (viz. four hours, ) 
this afternoon. May not this circumstance be con- 
sidered as an indication of the opening before us 
being a passage from Baffin’s Bay to another sea, 
into which these fish are now going, in consequence 
of their being pursued and harassed by the fishermen 
in these seas ? 
_ The mountains appear to have more snow on them 
than they had last year when we were here; this 
may, however, in a great measure, be accounted for, 
from our seeing them a month earlier this year, as 
it was on the 30th of August that we were at this 
place last voyage. Along the coast, however, and 
for about three hundred feet up the side of the 
