78 A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY 
composed entirely of clay slate, and the rocks along 
shore, wherever they appeared, were also of this 
kind. The beach did not seem to be much beaten 
by the sea, as the recks and loose stones that com- 
posed it did not bear the marks of much attrition. . 
This may, in a great. measure, be attributed to the 
manner in which it is guarded by ice, for all along 
shore there was a chain of large pieces of it from 
eight to ten feet thick, which of course shielded all 
within it from the violence of the sea, if the sea is 
ever in that state. 
The greater part of this ice was floating when 
we landed, but when we came off it was chiefly 
aground, having been left on the beach by the ebb- 
ing of the tide, which during the three hours we 
were ashore had fallen six feet. It had ebbed before 
we landed about eighteen inches, so that the rise and 
fall of the tide at this place may be estimated at 
twelve, or fourteen feet. We observed that the ebb 
set to the southward and westward, consequently the 
flood must come from that direction, a circumstance 
which Ithink must be evident to every person as being 
very much in our favour; for if the flood came from 
the Atlantic, why not come through the extensive 
passage formerly called Lancaster’s Sound? ‘To this 
it may be answered, indeed, that the opening or 
inlet in which we are, may communicate with the 
Atlantic through Cumberland’s Straits, or any of 
those passages between this and Hudson’s Bay, and 
that the flood may come from that direction. That 
such may be the case is certainly true, but when a 
question admits of two solutions, it is not unreason- 
able to put that construction on it which is most 
congenial to a person’s views. But to abandon this 
field of conjecture, I shall briefly state the few 
