VOYAGE TO THE BAY 19 
The 16th was thick and foggy, so that when the distance to 
Cape Fullerton had been run down in the evening, and the 
water had shoaled to twenty-five fathoms, the ship lay-to for the 
night. In the morning, standing to the westward, breakers 
were seen at nine o'clock; shortly after, several low islands were 
passed, and at noon the launch was sent ahead to sound the way 
into a long bay, which subsequently proved to be Winchester 
inlet. A good harbour, sheltered by islands, was found on the 
east side of the bay, and about three miles from its mouth, 
where the anchor was dropped at six o'clock in the evening. 
The country surrounding Winchester inlet is very similar 
to that bounding the whole of the northwestern part of Hudson 
bay. The country is underlain by Archaean crystalline rocks, 
and has all the physical characteristics common to similar areas 
in the south. Long, gently rounded hills, of slight elevation, 
form the higher grounds, with wide, shallow valleys between 
them. The whole has been intensely glaciated, and the abra- 
sion of the great ice-cap has reduced the general surface to as 
near a level surface as is possible, considering the varying 
resisting properties of the different rocks found here. 
There is no soil upon the rocky hills, while that of the valleys 
is largely boulder clay, in which the coarser material pre- 
dominates, leaving little room for the growth of Arctic 
vegetation upon the finer materials of the soil. Boulders scat- 
tered in profusion over the rocky hills give to the latter a 
peculiar ragged appearance. Lakes and ponds dot the valleys, 
and much of the land surrounding these is low and swampy. 
The shores of the bay are low, and are masked, in most 
places, by a wide fringe of low rocky islands, while beyond the 
islands the danger zone is continued several miles seaward by a 
labyrinth of sunken reefs. The bottom of the bay, beyond these 
reefs, continues very uneven, so that in the portion between 
Winchester and Chesterfield inlets there is danger of a ship 
