TO THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 65 
Monday, 2d.— There being but very little wind 
this forenoon, we availed ourselves of the oppor- 
tunity thus occasioned for sounding, which occu- 
pied a considerable portion of time, for we had no 
less than one thousand and forty-eight fathoms of 
line out before we found bottom ; it was estimated, 
however, that the actual depth was not above eight 
hundred and fifty, or nine hundred fathoms, as there 
was a very considerable portion of stray line. ‘The 
deep-sea-clamm was used on this occasion, the sound- 
ings brought up, consisted chiefly of mud, intermixed 
with small stones, and_ pieces of broken shells of a 
very delicate texture. At eight o’clock in the even- 
ing a breeze sprang up from the southward and east- 
ward, accompanied by fine clear weather, which ena- 
bled us to have an excellent view of the land on both 
sides of this spacious opening ; and although we had 
not as yet got so far into the Sound as we were last 
year, frequent visits were nevertheless made to the 
Crow’s Nest*, to look for Croker’s Mountain, for 
such was our anxiety, that we began to look for what 
we had good reasons to suppose did not exist, and 
that too before we got far enough to see them if they 
* This is the name given by the Greenland fishermen to a 
look-out place they have at the mast-head. It is frequently made 
of a cask, by taking one end out, and cutting a scuttle in the 
other for a person to get through; the use of it is to shelter the 
person looking out for whales, or the best lead amongst the ice, 
from the inclemency of the weather. We have two crows’ nests 
up, one at the main, and the other at the fore-mast head, and 
whenever we are amongst the ice, one or other of them is always 
occupied by some person looking out for the best way to get 
through, and to-day they have, as I have mentioned above, been 
frequently visited by persons looking out for what I hope we shall 
never see. 
F 
