72 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



^182L That no time might be lost in running the ships through the narrows, I 

 vJy-w directed three boats from each to be prepared, for the purpose of sounding 

 every part of this intricate, and as yet unknown, passage, which I named 

 after Captain Thomas Hurd of the Royal Navy, Hydrographer to the Admi- 

 ralty. Giving to the officer commanding each boat a certain portion to ac- 

 complish, I reserved for my own examination the narrowest part of the chan- 

 nel; and at thirty minutes past one P.M., as soon as the flood-tide began to 

 slacken, we left the ships and continued our work till late at night, when 

 having received the reports of the officers and made out a plan of the channel 

 for each ship, I directed every thing to be in readiness for weighing at the 

 last quarter of the ebb on the following morning. Much as I lamented this 

 delay, at a period of the season when every moment was precious, it will not 

 appear to have been unnecessary, when it is considered that the channel 

 through which the ships were to be carried did not in some places exceed a 

 mile in breadth, with half of that space encumbered with heavy masses 

 of ice, and with an ebb-tide of six knots running through it. 



The lines and kedges were prepared at daylight on the morning of the 

 Thur.30. 30th, but when the proper time of tide arrived there was not a breath of 

 wind for working the ships, so that I was reluctantly obliged to remain at 

 anchor till the next ebb. I therefore directed a large party of officers and 

 men to be sent on shore in quest of game, three deer having been killed the 

 preceding day. We had now however no success ; a number of deer were 

 seen in herds of from four to ten, but the neighbourhood of the ships had 

 rendered them too wild to be approached. A dog of mine, of the breed 

 called by game-keepers buck-dogs, that had for one or two years past been ac- 

 customed to run down deer in England, had now two fair chases, but without 

 the smallest chance of coming up even with three young fawns. The dog 

 returned with his feet much cut by the rocks, and so completely exhausted 

 that he could scarcely move a limb for a day or two afterwards. 



The little anchorage we were now about to leave, and which was named 

 by Captain Lyon, Duckett's Cove, lies in lat. 66° 12' 36"; and in longitude, 

 by our chronometers, 86° 44' 01". 9. The dip of the magnetic needle was here 

 87° 31' 06" and the variation 52° 19' 48" westerly. We found the holding 

 ground so tough that we could with difficulty purchase the anchors ; the shel- 

 ter from wind and sea is perfect in every direction, and there being scarcely 

 any stream of tide, no ice enters but what is drifted in with a south-easterly 

 wind, which coming with little force is not likely to do a ship any injury. 



