16 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



unimpeded progress we had just began to make to the westward, it was now 

 only that we considered our voyage as having fairly commenced. 



At five P.M., we were abreast of Saddleback, which we make in lat, 62° 11', 

 long. 67° 43' ; but, having no observations when in its immediate neighbour- 

 hood, it is thus laid down by our dead-reckoning only. The small cluster 

 of islands to which this belongs is called in the charts the middle Savage 

 Islands ; a name by which Mr. Davidson did not know them, nor can I find 

 any authority for it, but which may serve to distinguish them as well as any 

 other. Though there appeared to be several small openings as if between 

 islands along this coast, yet we saw none of any magnitude like that marked 

 " Jackman's Sound," in Mr. Arrowsmith's chart, which we must have plainly 

 noticed had it existed as there laid down. The fact is, that the inlet, so 

 called by Sir Martin Frobisher in the year 1576, has its only known entrance 

 on the south shore of the strait bearing the name of that navigator, its com- 

 munication with Hudson's Strait being a matter of very doubtful conjecture. 

 I believe, indeed, we may safely consider the land, by whatever name it may 

 be designated, as continuous the whole way from the East Bluff, as far west- 

 ward as North Bay. When abreast of Saddleback, at the distance of five or 

 six miles, we had from fifty to sixty fathoms' water. At half-past four P.M., 

 the tide mark upon the grounded ice-bergs was about ten feet, and the 

 stream, being that of ebb, was setting strong to the eastward. 



On the morning of the 24th, we found, on standing in-shore, that we were 

 off the great opening called North Bay, the largest and highest of the Upper 

 Savage Islands*, forming the western point of its entrance. The North 

 Bluff, a remarkable promontory, being the eastern point of the large portion 

 of nameless land lying immediately above the Savage Islands, appears very 

 conspicuous when standing in from the S.S.E. From this headland the 

 Hudson's Bay ships not unfrequently take their departure, and strike off 

 more to the westward towards the entrance of the bay ; though this depends, 

 in some measure, on the situation of the ice, which is somewhat different at 

 the same period of different seasons. It is, however, a general rule with 

 them to keep close along the northern shores of the strait, till the openness 



* Under these Islands (" the easternmost saving one") Baffin anchored A. D. 1615, 

 and named them the Savage Islands. He describes them as " having a great sound or 

 indraught between the north shore and them," and lays down his anchorage in latitude 

 62° 30', long., " near 72°." Our observations place it 2| miles to the northward, and 

 1° 52' to the eastward of that position. 



