OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



41 



to be attended to in coming through, for Captain Lyon's guidance, and then 182L 

 stood on to the westward, in order to make out the land in that quarter. v^-*J 

 The appearance of this land continued to perplex us more and more as we 

 advanced, as, instead of any opening corresponding to Wager River, which 

 lies about this latitude, and the high shores by which it is bounded, we soon 

 discovered before us a continuous line of low yellow-looking coast, extending 

 all round so as to meet the high land of Southampton Island to the south, 

 as well as that to the north, and leaving no perceptible outlet by which we 

 could find our way to the westward. In standing across we frequently 

 observed a great rippling on the water, and a boat was sent to sound ; but we 

 could find no bottom with forty to fifty fathoms of line, till within five or six 

 miles of the low shore, when we rather suddenly obtained soundings in twenty 

 fathoms, on a gravelly bottom. We then kept away, in a line with this shore, 

 to the northward, and at length perceived something like a small opening in 

 the north-eastern corner of Avhat otherwise appeared a large bay. The wind 

 veering to the southward, however, with rain, and every appearance of a 

 dirty night, and the Hecla not having yet got through the strait, in conse- 

 quence of light and baffling winds, I considered it most prudent to run in 

 under the western shore, and to anchor for the night, which we accordingly 

 did at thirty minutes after seven P.M., in thirteen fathoms, on a bottom of mud 

 and shells, at the distance of one mile from the beach. The navigation was 

 here perfectly unobstructed by ice, of which none was to be seen, except 

 here and there a straggling piece which appeared to have been lately de- 

 tached from the shore. A great number of white whales were observed in the 

 course of the day, and the cackling of geese was heard on shore the whole 

 night. The Hecla, having succeeded in getting through the strait, joined us 

 an hour before midnight. 



On the morning of the 17th, the weather being too foggy to move, parties Frid. 17. 

 from both ships went on shore to examine the country and to procure 

 specimens of its natural productions. We landed on a flat and very rough 

 beach, principally composed of sharp masses of limestone, over which, at low 

 water, it was difficult to drag the boats. Mixed with these were some pieces 

 of gneiss and granite, but the lime is by far the most abundant. This land, 

 which rises gradually from the beach, but is in no part more than sixty or 

 seventy feet above the level of the sea, was full of ponds of fresh water, and 

 in almost all the intermediate parts there was abundance of fine vegetation, 

 consisting of grass, moss, and various other plants, of which specimens were 



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