TO THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 247 
in the variety of their fantastic shapes. There 
is one of these ravines near the ship, that is 
particularly interesting in this way. I remarked 
that all these rocks were invariably stratified hori- 
zontally. The surface of the country is, generally 
speaking, plain, and, if viewed from the sea, would 
come under the denomination of table-land. 
Monday, 7th. — From the top of the hills above- 
mentioned, land was seen to-day, extending from 
S. to W. 8. W., and supposed to be about fifty 
miles off. Whether this is the continent of Ame- 
rica, or an island lying off it, is certainly a question 
that our present knowledge is inadequate to decide ; 
I shall therefore not offer an opinion on the sub- 
ject. From the same elevated situation whence this 
land was seen, we had also a good view of the sea 
to the westward, or rather, I am sorry to say, of 
the ice ; for, as far as we could see, in that direc- 
tion, as well as to the southward, and even to the 
eastward, it was covered with ice. ‘There were 
here and there, indeed, small pools, and lanes of 
open water, but no continuous opening. ‘The ice 
that lay close in with the land was in general 
broken up, into what might, comparatively speak- 
ing, be termed small pieces; but, beyond this, that 
-is, to seaward, it appeared to consist of immense 
floes, some of them several miles in diameter. We 
find also that the ice here is much heavier than any 
met with before, and is at the same time quite 
of a different character; for, instead of its pre- 
senting an even surface, like that in Baffin’s 
Bay, it is completely covered with hummocks, 
resembling what I understand the Greenland ice 
R 4 
