284 SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



l^;-- communicatins: with the sea, and thercfoiv admitting the tide, notwithstand- 

 Julv. ^ . 



.^*-v^ ing which we were forcibly struck with the fact, that an immense mass of 



consolidated drift-snow still remained undissolved in it. Tliis circumstance 



may pc.haps appear too trilliui? to have been noticed in so particular a manner; 



but to us who anxiously watched every operation connected with the annual 



process of dissolution, on which all our hopes depended, it could not fail to 



convey an impression of being a very unusual occurrence, and to imply 



cither a very backward summer or an extraordinary accumulation of snow in 



the winter. To one or both of these I am still inclined very confidently to 



attribute it; for in the locality of this island, low and open as it is to the 



sun's rays, and in the immediate neij^iibourhood of a more extensive oj)en 



sea than any known in this latitude, there is certainly every thins^ that 



Avould, « priori, have been considered calculated to accelerate rather than to 



retard the process of dissolution. 



The mincralogical cliaractor of this islet is similar to that of Igloolik ; but 

 among the pieces of limestone of which it is principally composed, lumps of 

 granite, gneiss, hornblende and mica-slate were also numerous, and I picked 

 up a piece of common iron pyrites. There is a good deal of vegetation also 

 in some parts, and our plant-collectors derived considerable amusement from 

 their walk. 'W'e observed a number of roots of scurvy-grass C''oc/ilcariu 

 fcnc.strataj growing on the beach where nothing else would, but the leaves 

 were as yet scarcely developed, and therefore of no service to us. Some 

 Esquimaux circles of stones were observed in two or three places on the 

 island, which shewed that they occasionally resort to it ; but it is not much 

 frequented by them. 



Having seen all that this little spot produced, we sailed over to the eastern 

 islands, three of which are conspicuous as forming one side of the entrance 

 of the strait, and are laid down Avitli extraordinary precision in Ewerat's 

 chart already inserted in tliis narrative, (No. 3.) These islands, wdiich I 

 named the Calthorpe Islands, out of respect to Lord Caltiiorpe, had 

 attracted our attention by two of them appearing at a distance to be of the 

 primitive formation, wliich had for some time forsaken us. Finding that a 

 great deal of ice had been detached and drifted away since our last attempt 

 in this neighbourhood, we were now enabled to approach the middle island of 

 the three as near as the depth of water would admit; and in the evening made 

 the ships fast to the fi.xcd ice in twelve fathoms, at the distance of a long mile 

 from the shore. The depth was regular and the bottom good in every ])art. 



