56 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



CHAPTER III. 



RETURN TO THE EASTWARD THROUGH THE FROZEN STRAIT — DISCOVERY OF HURD 



CHANNEL EXAMINED IN A BOAT — LOSS OF THE FURY'S ANCHOR — PROVIDENTIAL 



ESCAPE OF THE FURY FROM SHIPWRECK ANCHOR IN DUCKETT COVE — FURTHER 



EXAMINATION OF THE COAST BY BOATS AND WALKING-PARTIES SHIPS PROCEED 



THROUGH HURD CHANNEL — ARE DRIFTED BY THE ICE BACK TO SOUTHAMPTON ISLAND 

 UNOBSTRUCTED RUN TO THE ENTRANCE OF A LARGE INLET LEADING TO THE NORTH- 

 WESTWARD — SHIPS MADE FAST BY HAWSERS TO THE ROCKS FURTHER EXAMINATION 



OF THE INLET COMMENCED IN THE BOATS. 



1821. 



Having now satisfactorily determined the non-existence of a passage to the 

 Wed. 22. westward through Repulse Bay, to which point I was particularly directed 

 in my Instructions, and which, for the reasons detailed in the commence- 

 ment of the preceding Chapter, I had confidently considered as part of 

 the American continent, it now remained for me, in compliance with my 

 orders, to " keep along the line of this coast to the northward, always ex- 

 amining every bend or inlet which might appear likely to afford a practicable 

 passage to the westward." It was here, indeed, that our voyage, as regarded 

 its main object, may be said to have commenced, and we could not but con- 

 gratulate ourselves on having reached this point so early, and especially at 

 having passed almost without impediment the strait to which, on nearly the 

 same day* seventy-nine years before, so forbidding a name had been applied. 



As soon as the boats were hoisted up, all sail was made along shore to the 

 eastward, the wind being light off the northern land ; and we could plainly 

 perceive the low shore which runs to the southward and eastward of Cape 

 Hope, as far as the latitude of 66° 14', from whence the researches of the 

 present Expedition on the coast of the American continent are, therefore, to 

 be considered as commencing. We also saw the land on the eastern side of 

 the Welcome, about Cape Frigid, but as we had no opportunity of closely 



* Middleton discovered the Frozen Strait on the 20th of August, 1742, according to the 

 New Style. 



