74 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



1821. ^ive, and it being now dusk, we had every prospect of passing an anxious 

 v-^y-w and unpleasant night. 



On hauling up for the south shore, we perceived from the crow's nest a 

 point of land that seemed to open into a bay ; and as there was a chance, not- 

 withstanding the general boldness of the coast, of our there finding ground 

 for anchorage, we stood in for it under all sail. In this hope we were not 

 disappointed for, on rounding the point, we opened a snug little bay, at the 

 head of which we anchored soon after nine P.M., in fourteen fathoms on a 

 bottom of tough clay. We here lay at the distance of two cables' length 

 from the land, which is high all round the bay ; and, the strong south-west 

 wind preventing any ice from coming in, we passed a quiet night and our 

 people enjoyed the rest which they much required. Lights were hoisted 

 and rockets occasionally sent up as guides to the Hecla ; but as we saw no 

 answer, and she did not arrive in the bay, we apprehended she had been 

 obliged to keep under way during this inclement night. 

 Frid. 31. At daylight on the 31st we perceived the Hecla under the land to the 

 eastward standing towards us. I found from Captain Lyon that he had, 

 with the same good fortune which we experienced, found a secure shelter 

 during the night, by anchoring close under the land to the eastward, 

 in seventeen fathoms muddy bottom. In order to have a more com- 

 manding view of the situation of the ice, on which depended our next 

 movements whenever the wind should moderate, I proposed to Captain 

 Lyon to land and ascend the hill for that purpose. At thirty mi- 

 nutes past eight A.M., however, just as we were setting off, the wind 

 suddenly fell, and the ice began immediately to approach the shore. We 

 therefore weighed just in time to avoid a large floe-piece that drifted into 

 the bay ; and, standing over to the main body of ice to the northward, sud- 

 denly got soundings in sixteen to twelve fathoms, and then dropped into 

 twenty and twenty-five fathoms, no bottom. The Hecla a little to the west- 

 ward of us had several casts from seven to five and three quarter fathoms, 

 and, from the rippling occasioned by the tide, it is probable that there is 

 shoaler water in this neighbourhood. Our distance from the south shore was 

 about two miles and a half, and about four from Georgina Island, on an E.b.S. 

 bearing. After standing a quarter of a mile beyond the shoal, the ice obliged 

 us to tack ; and as there was not at present the smallest prospect of our 

 getting to the northward, so as to approach Gore Bay, in order to ascertain 



