490 THE FRANKLIN SEAECff— 18^8-51. 



of the coast we sailed along was a succession of towering mountain-ranges, 

 covered with snow, bordered by the black and precipitous shores, along 

 which were seen the entrances to the numerous fiords, deeply indenting this 

 coast, but which, at the distance we were at, appeared to be merely valley. 

 The difierent eflfects of light and shade were exceedingly beautiful, more 

 particularly in the evenings, when the summits of the more distant in- 

 land ranges shone in the sunlight like masses of gold, and the icebergs in 

 the foreground were tinged with the most beautiful and dazzling colours. 

 . . . One berg which I saw here was perforated by an arch of the most 

 perfect outline. The berg itself was of immense size, and I am not exag- 

 gerating when I say that a pretty large vessel could pass through it with all 

 sails set. But it is impossible to describe the beauties of these ice-islands. 

 Many of them have caverns worn in them, within which the ice appears of 

 the most brilhant blue and green, whilst without all is of stainless white, 

 the entrances curtained, as it were, with glittering icicles." 



On the 8th June, the " Advice " had advanced to about lat. 74°, and was 

 standing off the " Devil's Thumb," an immense column of rock rising from 

 among the mountains not far from shore ; and on the 1st July, Captain 

 Penny was in sight of Cape York, which abuts on the northern entrance to 

 Melville Bay. On the 3d he passed the famous " Crimson Cliffs " of Sir 

 John Ross, and found them not at all crimson, but rather dirty brown in 

 colour. On the 4th the whalers were fairly in the north-west, whence, sail- 

 ing westward, they passed Carey Islands, and sighted the " west land " of 

 Baffin's Bay on the 8th. The land seen was part of the coast of North 

 Devon, from which, steering south, Penny passed the mouth of Lancaster 

 Sound. "We were too distant at this time," writes Goodsir, " to make out 

 whether the sound was frozen across, but it may be believed it was not ; with 

 no uninterested eyes I looked in that direction, which, four years before, had 

 been taken by those of whose welfare so many were now looking eagerly for 

 tidings. I would fain have struck at once for the westward; however, 

 there was nothing for it but to wait patiently. So I made up my mind to 

 pass the next month in Pond's Bay, as I best could — the hope never leav- 

 ing me that I might yet succeed, one way or another, in getting up Lan- 

 caster Sound." On the evening of the 9th, the " Advice " was off Cape 

 Graham Moore, the northern point of Pond's Bay — ^then the most produc- 

 tive fishing-ground of the whalers. Here for a time Goodsir must be con- 

 tent to remain, leaving aside the main object he had in view in coming to 

 Lancaster Sound. He must accept the inevitable. It was Captain Penny's 

 first duty, to himself, his owners, and his crew, to secure " a full ship," after 

 which, whatever could be done to forward the " doctor's " wishes, he would 

 doubtless try to do ; for his heart was in the sacred cause, as well as Good- 

 sir's. Meantime the nightless day — for the sun had ceased to decline below 



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