9514, A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY 
though we gained but little ground on this occa- 
sion, we have benefited very considerably by get- 
ting the ships into a much more secure place than 
that which we left; for we have advanced into a 
creek formed by large hummocks of ice aground 
within twenty yards of the beach; in fact, we lie so 
close to the shore, that we step almost immediately 
on it from the ship. In the course of the day I 
took a walk of five or six miles along shore to the 
westward, during which excursion I shot nine 
hares, and saw a great many tracks of reindeer, 
and musk-oxen. ‘The land is of the same charac- 
ter, as far as I could see, as that which I described 
where we had been lying for this week past. ‘The 
coast now begins to trend very much to the north- 
ward, as nigh as I can judge about north-west, for 
the place that we left this morning was in latitude 
74° 25’ 24” N. and longitude by chronometer 
113° 42’ 30” W., and that where the ships now lie 
is in latitude 74° 26’ 06” N. and longitude by the 
mean of three sets of sights for chronometer 
113° 46’ 05” W.* With respect to the state of 
the ice, I could perceive no material difference in 
it to-day, from what it has been for this week past : 
close in with the land it is broken up, as I have 
already mentioned, into small pieces; but at the 
distance of a mile (or two at the farthest) from 
the coast, commence a line of floes which extend to 
the westward and southward, as far as the eye can 
* These last results, viz. latitude 74° 26’ 06” N., and longi- 
tude 113° 46’ 05” W., were obtained from observations made on 
the 16th instant, although mentioned amongst the events of 
the 15th. 
