62 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. August 



obliged us to let go the bower anchor in twenty-one 

 fathoms, the ship drifting into thirty-five fathoms. 

 In the evening the weather cleared up and enabled 

 me to get a few bearings with a theodolite from the 

 summit of Cape Sabine, some 1,200 feet above the 

 sea-level. The Victoria and Albert Mountains, fifty 

 miles distant, showed very distinctly. The channel 

 between Ellesmere Land and Bache Tsland was seen to 

 be nearly closed by a group of rocky islets ; but there 

 was apparently a northern passage on the westward 

 side of the island. The islands were named after 

 Lieutenant Carl Weyprecht, the commander of the 

 Austrian discovery ship ' TegetthofF.' 



The wind was so strong, and my feet so wet and 

 cold after climbing up the rugged snow-clad hill-side, 

 that I was forced to content myself with a sketch and 

 the most important bearings. Not a particle of water 

 was to be seen, and the sea between Cape Sabine and 

 Littleton Island, which four days ago was free from 

 ice, was now completely blocked. 



The high water full and change was found to be at 

 11 h. 56 m., rise and fall about twelve feet. 



The red syenite rock forming Cape Sabine and 

 the islands in the neighbourhood of Payer Harbour 

 is sterile and barren to the last degree. During the 

 three days we were detained there, although parties 

 from the ships explored the whole of the immediate 

 neighbourhood, very little animal-life was seen. Six 

 narwhals were on one occasion observed playing in the 

 harbour, and a colony of glaucous gulls were found 

 nesting in a steep cliff on Brevoort Island. A few 

 eider ducks' nests were obtained, and a large seal (Phoca 



