13 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



1821. f ew pi eces f drift fir-wood, some of which having been sawed and others 

 ; vrw chipped, shewed that these people were not in want of wood, since they 

 could thus afford to leave it behind them in no inconsiderable quantity. The 

 only animals seen were one hare, which was very dark on the back, a single 

 grouse, a bird like a snipe, and some flocks of snow buntings ; but the dung 

 of hares was abundant. There was in some places a good deal of vegeta- 

 tion, and among the specimens collected, were several of those we had be- 

 fore met with in the polar regions, especially the sorrel, frumex digynus ), 

 scurvy-grass, poppy, ( papaver nudicaale,) saxifrage, ( saxifraga oppositifoliaj, 

 dwarf willow, and andromeda tetragona, the latter being in flower, and growing 

 in great abundance on the higher parts of the island. On the hills were 

 some large ponds of water, which poured their streams down the cliffs into 

 the sea, through arches formed under the snow with which the sides of the 

 hills were still covered. 



The latitude of our place of observation is 62° 31' 30", its longitude, by 

 chronometers, 69° 57' 17", and the variation of the magnetic needle 52° 37' 04" 

 westerly. When Ave landed, at forty minutes after four, P.M., the tide had 

 ebbed about two feet and a half ; and at twenty minutes after seven when we 

 left the island, it had fallen thirteen feet more ; from which the whole fall of 

 this tide, though at the dead of the neaps, may be considered as above twenty- 

 nine feet. We had hauled our boats up on a smooth inclined rock, but, on 

 our return from the hills, had to lower them down ten or twelve feet perpen- 

 dicular. By these observations it was concluded that the time of high water at 

 full and change, was about thirty-five minutes past seven o'clock. The current, 

 by a boat moored in the offing, was found to set S.S.E. J E., three quarters of a 

 mile per hour, and as it appears to have been running in the same direction 

 during the whole time that we were on shore, it may be presumed that the 

 ebb tide comes down the bay, or from the northward and westward. The time 

 of high water, deduced from our observations, is about two hours earlier than 

 that usually marked in the charts. This discrepancy may partly arise from an 

 actual difference to that amount, between the time of high water on shore, 

 and that of the change of tide in the offing, where it is most common, as well 

 as most useful, for seamen in general to observe it. 



From the top of the hill we could see land nearly all round the bay ; but 

 in the middle it was so distant as by no means to give us an idea of its entire 

 continuity. Had it been our business to explore it, the further examination 



