OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



33 



and eventually brought into the middle of a large floe by the process detailed 182L 

 above. This explanation, however, goes but a little way towards clearing 

 up the difficulty ; for, besides the necessity of supposing, in this case, that 

 each mass of ice has in its turn been brought into close contact with the 

 shore, we have never seen an instance, in any bay or harbour, where ice so 

 brought, even under the most favourable circumstances, has received any 

 such deposit. In whatever manner it may be effected, it is certain that 

 these substances act an essential part in the dissolution of the ice, as 

 even the smallest stone or collection of sand, may always be observed to 

 have formed a pool of water around it, in consequence of the radiation 

 of heat from its surface. The stones now found upon the ice were granite, 

 gneiss, feldspar, and lime, the latter being most abundant ; indeed, all the 

 earthy matter found in the holes effervesced with sulphuric acid. There 

 were also several kinds of shells, among which was the species of anomia 

 first discovered in Barrow's Strait, and found both in the shell and the fossil 

 state in the course of the former voyage. 



The variation of the magnetic needle was here 55° 05' 30 " westerly. At 

 seven P.M. the tide set E.b.S, at the rate of half a mile an hour, the ice 

 being remarkably still, and the strength of the tides certainly much less 

 than farther to the eastward ; a circumstance, which, added to our subsequent 

 observations, confirmed the remark of Baffin, that there was " less shew of 

 tide" in this part. Having succeeded in forcing the ships two miles farther 

 in-shore, we again made fast, having deepened the water to one hundred and 

 fifty fathoms. 



At noon on the 6th, we observed in lat. 65° 28' 15", being two miles Mon. 6. 

 and a quarter to the northward of that in which Bylot, with whom Baffin sailed 

 as pilot, left off his search of a passage to the westward in 1615. The 

 reasons which induced him to relinquish the enterprise at this place were, 

 the increased quantity of ice, the water becoming less deep, and his seeing 

 land bearing N.E.b.E. from him ; circumstances which led him to conclude 

 that he was at the mouth of a large bay. The same land, which Ave had 

 now in sight, proved to be one of several islands, and I gave it the name 

 of Baffin Island, out of respect to the memory of that able and enterprising 

 navigator. The south-easternmost land in sight was that about Cape 

 Comfort, which Baffin considered in lat. 65°, long. 85° 20'. Our angles 

 and observations place it in 64° 54', and 82° 57'. Between Baffin Island and 

 the high land of Southampton Island, from which points the discoveries of the 



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