Augnst, 1864.] CouTse of the Ship. 55 



it. The oil Wcas sweet and pellucid. By the light Irom some of it, 

 Hall wrote his next journal entries. In the paunch of the second bear 

 about six gallons of seal-oil had been found. 



From the entrance of the straits the course of the jMonticello hud 

 been run between 60° 59' N. and 63° 47' N. The last-named latitude, 

 made August 10, was found to be considerably north of where the ship's 

 dead-reckoning placed her ; she had been swept out by the current. 

 From the 7th to the 20th the log gives the longitude reckonings, G9°, 

 70° 40', 72° 33', 75° 08', 84° 27', 85° 30', 88° 40', 90° 20', 89° 40' ; 

 on the 20th, 89° 56' W. Compass variation, 41° W. 



On the 12th, under favor of a south-southeast wind and a strong 

 current, the ship had made the most rapid advance of any part of her 

 course ; Nottingham and Salisbury Islands, which had been on her 

 starboard all day, being suddenly swept by and left far in the distance. 

 It was now learned that the passage of the straits had been much more 

 successfully accomplished by one of the ships of the Hudson's Bay 

 Company, the Prince of Wales, which, according to her log, had made 

 it in less than six days. 



Eight days after, the Monticello, having completed her run across 

 the bay, anchored at Depot Island, in lat. 63° 47' N., long. 89° 51' W. 

 The Eskimo name of this island is Pik-e-u-lar ; its English name had 

 been given to it by Captain E. A. Chapel on a former voyage. 



Hall was much disappointed that the vessel did not proceed 

 directly to Marble Island, her original destination. He liad liopes of 

 doing some good work there by carefully determining the geograph- 

 ical position of the island, and had a second object in view. Remem- 

 bering the fate of the expedition under Knight and Barlow, sent out 



