220 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



occupied in my cabin on tliis day, in the examination of my 

 dried plants, I was summoned by one of the officers to be- 

 hold a marvellous spectacle, in the shape of a huge snow- 

 cloud, like a solid leaden wall, which descended vertically 

 from the sky to the water, and gradually swept up 

 to the ship. By this time we had received abundant evi- 

 dence that the winter had set in fairly, as it was getting 

 much too cold to despatch surveying parties on shore, unless 

 they had been equipped in arctic garb, with which they 

 were not provided ; and it was therefore determined that, 

 after paying a final visit to Sandy Point to obtain a set of 

 sights, we should bid good-bye to the Strait for the season. 

 On the 4th, therefore, the wind being at last down, we 

 weighed in the morning, and passed through the first Nar- 

 rows, anchoring soon after four p.m. in Gregory Bay. The 

 sunset that evening was very striking, the sun descending as a 

 fiery red globe behind the snow-white Gregory Eange ; and 

 the sunrise next morning was also remarkable, a wide space 

 of pale greenish-yellow sky on the horizon being surmounted 

 by piles of scarlet and rosy cloud. We left our anchorage 

 early, but the wind arose soon after breakfast, so as greatly 

 to retard our progress southwards, although we had the tide 

 in our favour. Two seals were seen close to the ship for a 

 few minutes in the course of the forenoon. We anchored, at 

 half-past two p.m., off Cape Porpesse, and a party landed im- 

 mediately after ; Captain Mayne, one of the officers, and 

 myself, walking over the high ground on the summit of Cape 

 Porpesse and Cape Negro to Laredo Bay. The range of cliffs, 

 formed of boulder-clay, extending between the two capes, is 

 high and precipitous, and presents a series of projecting ridges, 

 with intervening deep furrows ; and the high ground behind 

 it (the beginning of the wooded country) is covered with a 

 thick brushwood, formed principally of tall bushes (Bihes 



