OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 321 



yet deserted us in such cases, we succeeded in picking out an excellent an- '^_^^- 

 chorage in eleven fathoms, where we passed a thick, snowy, and dark night, 

 without any disturbance from wind or ice. 



As soon as the anchors were dropped, my attention was once more turned 

 to tlic main object of the Expedition, from which it had for a moment been 

 diverted by the necessity of exerting every effort for the immediate safety of 

 the ships. This being now provided for, I had leisure to consider in what man- 

 ner, hampered as the ships were by the present state of the ice, our means 

 and exertions might during this unavoidable detention be employed to the 

 greatest advantage, or at least with the best prospect of ultimate utility. 



Whatever doubts might at a distance have been entertained respecting 

 the identity, or the contrary, of the place visited by Captain Lyon with that 

 subsequently discovered by myself, there could be none on a nearer view ; 

 as, independently of the observed latitude, Captain Lyon could not, on ap- 

 proaching the narrows, recognise a single feature of the land ; our present 

 channel being evidently a much wider and more extensive one than that 

 pointed out by Toolemak on the journey. It became, tlierefore, a matter of 

 interest, now that this point was settled, and our progress again stopped by 

 an insuperable obstacle, to ascertain the extent and communication of the 

 southern inlet; and, should it prove a second strait, to watch the breaking up 

 of the ice about its eastern entrance, that no favourable opportunity might 

 be missed of pushing through it to the westward. Hitherto, as 1 have 

 before remarked, the question respecting the existence of a second passage, 

 had been wholly unimportant as concerned the movements of the Expedi- 

 tion, because we could see, at the time of our entering the present strait, 

 that the only possible track to the other was blocked by solid and continuous 

 ice. The mortifying prospect however of a second detention in this strait, 

 added to the consideration of the sucUlen changes that often take place in 

 the state of the ice, rendered it again necessary to revert to the southern 

 inlet, to which, but a few days before, we had ceased to attach any importance. 

 I therefore determined to desj)atch three separate parties, to satisfy all doubts 

 in that quarter, as well as to gain every possible infonnation as to the length 

 of the Strait, and the extent of the lixed ice, now more immediately before us. 



With diis view, I requested Captain Lyon to take with him Mr. Griffiths 

 and four men, and proceed over land in a S.b.E. direction, till he should de- 

 termine by the difference of latitude, which amounted only to sixteen miles, 

 whether there was or was not a strait leading to the westward, about the 



2 T 



