82 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



CHAPTER IV. 



HOPPNER'S INLET ENTERED AND SURVEYED BY THE BOATS CONTINUITY OF LAND 



THERE DETERMINED PROCEED TO EXAMINE ANOTHER OPENING LEADING TO THE 



WESTWARD FAVOURABLE APPEARANCE OF A CONTINUED PASSAGE IN THAT DI- 

 RECTION MEET WITH SOME ESQUIMAUX ARRIVAL IN ROSS BAY, BEING THE 



TERMINATION OF LYON INLET DISCOVERY AND EXAMINATION OF VARIOUS CREEKS 



' RETURN TO THE SHIPS, AFTER FINDING THE LAND ENTIRELY CONTINUOUS SOME 



ACCOUNT OF THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THIS PART OF THE COAST. 



1821. A thick fog unfortunately coming on just before we left the ships, prevented 

 ^2^, us from making choice of any part of the land, which might be the most 

 likely to afford a passage to the northward and westward. We could only 

 therefore direct our course northerly with tolerable certainty, by a compass- 

 bearing previously taken on board, and by occasionally obtaining an indis- 

 tinct glimpse of the land through the fog. Having rowed four miles we came 

 to a high point, round which we turned rather to the westward, and then 

 landed a little beyond it. The fog becoming somewhat less thick, Mr. Sherer 

 and myself ascended the hill in hopes of obtaining a view of the surrounding 

 shores, in order to form a better judgment of the route we should pursue on 

 the following morning. Though the weather still continued very unfavourable 

 for this purpose, we could at times see far enough around us to determine me 

 to follow up the small inlet, which, as we now found, we had lately entered 

 in the boat. It was here one mile across, and seemed to lead first to the 

 N.N.W., and afterwards more to the westward. Contracted as our view was, 

 in consequence of the fog, it was still sufficiently extensive to embrace a 

 number of detached sheets of water which, being magnified by the fog, 

 served to perplex us not a little in conjecturing whether they might be lakes 

 or arms of the sea. Most of them afterwards proved to be the former, and 

 some of them were of considerable size. Having taken all the compass- 

 bearings that the weather would permit we descended to the beach, where 



