Melville Island. 
TO THE ARCTIC REGIONS, 107 
animals of any kind, have been seen. A 
few Mallemucks and Seals would, I believe, 
comprise the whole list. 
Wednesday, September 1st. — When the 
weather cleared up this morning, we found 
ourselves within three or four miles of 
what seemed to be another flat island, 
apparently of greater extent than any of 
those we have passed to the eastward. 
The eastern extreme of it bore at this 
time N. by W. (true), and the western ex- 
treme due W. (true). We happened to be 
sounding at the time it was seen, and, 
notwithstanding the nature of the land, 
we found ourselves in forty-five fathoms’ 
water, soft mud. 
We have been running along this land 
(for it is presuming too much to call it an 
island), the whole day, and we find that it 
presents, as far as we have yet examined, the 
same appearance as that part of it which we 
first saw in the morning; that is, low near 
- the coast, and rising gradually towards the 
interior, but the height of any part of it 
which has yet been in view is very incon- 
siderable. Its surface is, generally speaking, 
even, and is, I may almost say, entirely clear 
of snow, for I saw only one or two small 
patches of it the whole day; the sea to 
the southward, however, is covered with 
ice as far as we can ascertain, and along the 
shore there are pieces of it aground all 
the way that we have come to-day, but the 
