7O A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY 
yet in some parts of it there appeared to be inlets or 
chasms in which were apparently very secure har- 
bours; but our distance from it was too great to 
_ enable us to speak with any degree of certainty on 
this point. 
The surface of the country inland, as far as we 
could see, had very little snow on it, which I thought 
might possibly be owing to its being so plain that no 
part of it afforded shelter for the drift-snow to lodge ; 
its height was also very inconsiderable, for it ap- 
peared to rise but very little beyond the cliffs along 
the coast. We found the sea quite clear of ice as 
we sailed along during the day, with the exception 
of a few small bergs; but, in the evening, we came 
to what appears to be an island, with a ledge of ice 
extending from the north and south ends of it as far 
as we cansee. That which runs from the north end 
appears to reach as far as the land ; but as it happened 
to become hazy just as we made the ice, it is possible 
that we might have been deceived as to its extent. 
At all events, as long as we are not interrupted by 
land, a little stoppage by ice is a matter of very 
little consequence ; for I have no doubt but we shall 
manage to get through it. Between the island just 
mentioned and the north land, or that along which 
we have been sailing all day, there appears to be a 
large open bay, or, it might perhaps be more pro- 
perly said, that the land opposite this island trends 
to the northward and westward, instead of due west 
as before. As we approached the ice this afternoon 
we saw from twenty to thirty whales. 
Thursday, 5th.—The weather had been foggy 
since yesterday evening until five o’clock this after- 
noon, so that we had been during that time little 
better than stationary, standing alternately off and 
