OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 75 



its continuity with the shore on which I landed on the 28th, I determined to 1821. 

 run along the edge of the ice to the eastward, and to look for any opening Ji^T 

 that might there be found practicable, rather than wait inactively in our pre- 

 sent situation. Our course was, therefore, directed towards the openings 

 before observed to the eastward, where the land appeared to be broken into 

 several islands. As we approached these, which I named after The Right 

 Honourable William Sturges Bourne, we found that they presented at least 

 four openings, all of which appeared navigable but for the ice which now 

 choked the three northern ones. The other channel, which is the widest, 

 was however quite clear ; we therefore hauled up for it, and discovered soon 

 after to the southward an opening into the Frozen Strait, thus determin- 

 ing the insularity of a large portion of its north-eastern shore, which I named 

 after the Right Honourable Nicholas Vansittart, Chancellor of the Exche- 

 quer. The opening now discovered was between Baffin and Vansittart 

 Islands. 



The Hecla, in rounding a point of ice which the tide had set in motion, was 

 beset by the loose masses rapidly closing round her, and drifted by the ebb 

 along the island lying on the north side of this channel. She remained in 

 this situation above two hours ; when, all our boats having been sent to her 

 assistance, she was towed out into clear water, and joined us at dusk in 

 the evening. The ice having, in the mean time, remained too close to allow 

 us to proceed to the northward, no time was lost by this accident, and we 

 lay -to in open water during the night in the hope of perceiving some favour- 

 able change the following day. The night was nearly calm, notwithstanding 

 which the ships appeared to be so little influenced by tide, that they retained 

 their station till daylight without any difficulty or disturbance from ice. 



I was sorry to perceive, on the morning of the 1st of September, that the ^\ 

 appearance of the ice was by no means favourable to our object of sailing to 

 the northward, along the Sturges Bourne Islands ; but at ten A.M., the edge 

 being rather more slack, we made all sail with a very light air of southerly 

 wind, and the weather clear, warm, and pleasant. We were at noon in lat. 

 66° 03' 35", and in long. 83° 33' 15", in which situation a great deal of land 

 was in sight to the northward, though apparently much broken in some places. 

 From N.E. round to S.S.E., there was still nothing to be seen but one wide 

 sea, uninterruptedly covered with ice as far as the eye could reach. A 

 prospect like this would naturally convey to the mind of a person little ac- 

 quainted with this navigation, an idea of utter hopelessness. So apt, indeed, 



L 2 



