OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 213 



On the morning of the 16th, the weather being extremely fine, Captain 

 Lyon left the ships, accompanied by Lieutenant Palmer and the rest of his >sr^ 

 travelling party, and equipped for remaining the night, with the intention of 

 effecting the object which on his former excursion the inclemency of the wea- 

 ther had rendered impracticable. We were glad to find that a very moderate 

 breeze from the north-west served once more to separate the ice, which had for 

 some days past been attached to the land, and to send it off to a considerable 

 distance. The thermometer being from 3° to 9° during the day, very little 

 frost-smoke rose from the clear water. Some hard well-defined clouds, 

 being nearly the first we had seen this season, appeared for a short time 

 to-day, and were welcomed as the harbingers of returning moisture in the 

 atmosphere. The Aurora Borealis was seen at night to the southward, and 

 extending at times in a broad band of light across the heavens, but at a low 

 altitude from east to west. 



Early on the morning of the 17th the thermometer fell to •— 12°, being the Wed ' 17 ' 

 lowest temperature we had now experienced for some time. At ten A.M. 

 Captain Lyon and his party returned, having walked some distance beyond 

 the spot where they had before been detained, and determined which must 

 be the route to be pursued whenever they set out on their intended journey. 

 They found the passage between the island and the continent to be from 

 one to two miles in breadth ; and that the hummocky nature of the ice 

 would not, as we had hoped, admit of their cutting off any of the distance 

 to be travelled between the island and the north-eastern point of land. 



We could now begin to perceive, from day to day, that the snow n Thur18 - 

 shore was diminishing. How slow this process was may however be un- 

 derstood by the fact, that it was necessary to make a mark on some stone to 

 be assured that it was thus receding. Our snow-wall had indeed settled 

 down nearly a foot by the gradual diminution of the blocks of which it 

 was composed ; but the thawing had been artificially assisted by the black 

 cloth hung against it. Five ravens were seen to-day all quite black ; four 

 of them were flying in pairs. 



On the 19th the wind veered by north to east and south-east, and towards F lid - 19 - 

 evening a good deal of snow fell of a softer and larger kind than we had 

 yet seen this year. In the afternoon, before the snow came on, the south 

 thermometer, exposed to the faint rays of the sun, stood for a short time as 

 high as 56°, that in the shade being at 14|°, but a light breeze springing up 

 immediately brought the two thermometers to nearly the same low tempe- 



