80 SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



1821. evening wc arrived off a point of the eastern land, which I named Cape 

 v.^^^^ Edwards, after Mr. John Edwards, Surgeon of the Fury. We had here 

 twelve fathoms at the distance of a mile from the shore, and found the water 

 deepen gradually a.s we hauled out. A small stream of ice lay off the point, 

 besides which there was not a piece in sight, and we ran along the shore 

 without obstruction till it was time to look out for an anchorage. Having first 

 sent the boats to sound, we hauled into a small bay where we anchored at 

 dusk, in seventeen fathoms, good holding-ground, though the bottom was so 

 irregular that we had from five to thirteen close upon our (juartcr. The wind 

 freshened up strong from the eastward and continued to blow during the night, 

 but we lay quite sheltered and secure. A great number of stones set up by 

 the Esquimaux were here observed, placed as usual on every spot most con- 

 spicuous from the sea. 

 Thuis. 6. ^Ve began to weigh at break of day on the Gth, but found the ground so 

 tough that we had some difficulty in purchasing the anchors. In effecting 

 this, James Richardson one of the leading-men of the Fury received a severe 

 contusion on his shoulder by the purchase-block falling upon him from aloft *. 

 After running fovu- or five leagues to the northward and westward, we came 

 at thirty minutes after nine A.M. to a small group of islands lying in the 

 channel, and directed our course to the eastward of them. The wind how- 

 ever failing us just in the middle, we hauled out and sent the boats to tow; 

 but whichever way we put the ships' heads, a " cats-paw " every now and then 

 took the sails aback, keeping us for an hour in a very awkward situation, being 

 only two hundred yards from either shore, and in seventy fathoms' water. 

 The boats being sent to sound, several shoals were discovered just beyond us 

 to the northward, but nothing like anchorage near them. As the situation of 

 the ships was now a very precarious one, should any stream of tide begin to 

 run, I determined to tow them into two small nooks near us, where they might 

 at least be out of the way of the tide. Finding here a depth of from seven- 

 teen to nineteen fathoms at half a cable's length from tlie shore, the anchors 

 were dropped, and several hawsers immediately secured to the rocks, to steady 

 the ships. The men from this circumstance, and with their usual humour, 

 called this place Five-hawser Bui/, by which name I have distinguished it on 

 the chart. We found that the two litde nooks communicated by a narrow and 



* This accident which produced no eventual injury, occurred in consequence of an iron 

 hook giving way. It is only mentioned in this place, to shew the propriety of substituting 

 lashings for the hooks of blocks, wherever practicable, in this climate. 



