TO THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 79 
remaining occurrences that came under my observ- 
ation in the course of the day. When speaking of the 
beach, I omitted to mention, that, in the little pools of 
water left when the tide ebbed, we found myriads of 
small shrimps, or what are vulgarly called sea-lice; on 
the beach there were also a great number of shells of 
different kinds, the greatest part of those that I-saw 
consisted of the Venus and Mya genera. 
Sunday, 8th.— We came this morning to a 
compact barrier of ice, which extended in an oblique 
direction from the west land, to the south-east land, 
or that on which we were yesterday. We were by 
this means reduced again to two alternatives, viz. 
to wait here* until an opening might happen to take 
place in the ice, that would enable us to proceed on, 
or to return again to the northward, to see if any 
favourable change had taken place there of which we 
might take advantage. As the distance we have to 
go back is not very considerable, it was deemed most 
proper to retrace our course again to the northward, 
than to remain inactive at this place. Other consi- 
derations might also be mentioned, tending to favour 
this resolution ; 1n the first place the northern pas- 
sage, if | may so call the opening described on the 
5th instant, appeared to lead directly to the west- 
ward, or in fact it seemed to be a continuation of the 
spacious passage, through which we came from 
Baffin’s Bay ; and, in the second place, we have had 
experience enough of the ice to know that extraordi- 
nary changes take place in it, without any apparent 
cause, for we have often seen the most compact 
bodies of it opening, without either wind or tide 
* Our latitude at noon was 72° 13’ N. and longitude 90° 29’ W., 
which must have been very nearly the farthest that we went in 
this inlet. 
