34 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



1821. present Expedition commence, there was a considerable interval to the north- 

 .aua,ust. 



v>yv ward and westward, where no land had as yet appeared. We could not, there- 

 fore, but entertain very sanguine hopes that this opening would be found to 

 communicate with, and even to be a continuation of, the Frozen Strait, as 

 Middleton himself had suggested. In the evening, the sky became overcast, 

 the wind being southerly ; and between eleven P.M. and midnight, several 

 vivid flashes of lightning were seen to the westward, and succeeded by hard 

 rain for some hours. 



Our progress was now so slow, owing to constant interruption by ice, that 



Thurs. 9. on the 9th, at noon, we had only reached the lat. of 65° 34' 28", and 

 long. 82° 24' 12", our soundings being one hundred and fifty fathoms muddy 

 bottom. The northern land in sight, which now first seemed to consist 

 of islands, appeared low in comparison with the coast of Southampton 

 Island, the latter rising to a considerable height above the sea, and having 

 two hills very conspicuous from the eastward, forming a sort of saddle, not 

 unlike that of the Mormond Hills over Buchaness. In the afternoon we 

 once more entered the ice, which favoured us by opening more and more as 

 we advanced ; so that we succeeded in making several miles to the westward, 

 and were enabled to keep the ships under way and in open water during the 

 night, tacking off and on near a small rocky islet. Three miles to the south j 

 east of this, we had one hundred and one fathoms, and could detect no cur- 

 rent by a boat moored to the bottom . 



Frid. 10. The necessity of carrying easy sail on account of the islet, which, for two 

 or three hours, it was too dark to distinguish, prevented our making any 

 progress to the westward during the night. In passing to the southward 

 and eastward of the rocky islet, we had thirty fathoms at the distance of 

 a mile and a half, and the boats being sent to sound on its southern and 

 western side, no bottom was found with thirty-five fathoms at about the same 



Sat, 11. distance. Towards the evening of the 11th, we succeeded in getting in with 

 the northern land, and at twenty minutes after nine P.M., being close to a 

 small rock or islet, which lies about a mile and a half off the shore, I landed 

 upon it, accompanied by a large party of officers, who volunteered to man the 

 boat. We found it to be about one-fifth of a mile across, consisting entirely 

 of gneiss-rock, rounded on the surface, and with a little moss and a very few 

 other plants growing in crevices where water had lodged. We saw the tracks 

 of deer upon some moist sand, and a rude circle of stones, being probably 

 the remains of an Esquimaux summer habitation. From twenty minutes after 



