54 CRUISE OF THE NEPTUNE 
danger to the party is in event of the gjoa being unable to free 
herself from the ice when the time comes for a return. As the 
expedition is aware of the whaling and police establishments 
in the northwestern part of Hudson bay a retreat there may be 
made Without great difficulty, if accompanied by natives. 
we were forced to leave beechey island hurriedly, owing to 
a large quantity of ice being driven rapidly out of the harbour 
by a fresh breeze and a falling tide, which threatened to 
separate us from the ship. 
From the island no ice could be seen to the westward or 
northward in wellington channel and Barrow strait. Our 
instructions limited the cruise westward in Lancaster sound to 
our present position, and the damaged condition of the ship, 
together with a supply of provisions insufficient for another 
winter in the ice, all militated against the desire to attempt the 
Northwest Passage, which under favourable conditions seemed 
possible in our staunch powerful steamship. ' 
we left Erebus harbour at half-past two in the afternoon, 
standing southward across Lancaster sound for North Somerset 
island. At five o'clock some loose stringers of ice were met, and 
the course was changed to the eastward to avoid them. The 
north wind freshened to a gale accompanied by fog, and trouble 
was experienced in making the channel between Leopold island 
and Cape Clarence, at the mouth of Prince regent inlet. The 
cape was passed at ten o'clock. The ship then steamed south, 
along the high cliffs of limestone, for Port Leopold, where we 
arrived at midnight. These cliffs rise 1,000 feet perpendicu- 
larly, being formed of nearly horizontal beds of limestone of 
different thicknesses and various shades of yellow, so that the 
cliff has a marked horizontal banding. The rocks appear to 
have long been submitted to the action of the weather and of 
small streams, each of which has cut a more or less marked gully 
into the face of the cliff, and the whole, taken together, give the 
