OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



229 



ever, did not seem sufficient to account for the singular fact that frequently, ^ 2 < 

 for twenty hours out of the four-and-twenty, the stream set to the southward, v-^vO 

 even against a breeze from that quarter, though of course more decidedly so 

 when the wind was northerly. The only way, therefore, in which we could 

 venture upon any conclusion as to the true direction of the flood-tide,was from 

 the circumstance of the stream generally setting to the southward at a rate 

 somewhat less rapid upon the ebb than on the flood, by which it appeared 

 that the latter came from the northward. 



On the 19th, after an impressive sermon delivered by Mr. Fisher, the Sun. 19. 

 last mournful duties were performed over the remains of our deceased 

 shipmate. The procession consisted of all the seamen, marines, and offi- 

 cers of both ships, and the ensigns and pendants remained lowered during 

 the rest of a day distinguished to us by this sad event. Nothing worthy of 

 notice occurred till the evening of the 21st when, soon after eight o'clock, Tues.2l. 

 Captain Lyon and his party were seen on their return over the hills and, being 

 met by a number of the officers and men from the ships, arrived on board 

 before ten, when I was happy to find our travellers in good health, excepting 

 a little snow-blindness and " foot-foundering," of which they soon recovered. 

 I will not further anticipate Captain Lyon's Account, which is here annexed, 

 than to remark that this journey served to excite very reasonable hopes that 

 he had seen the north-eastern extreme of the great peninsula, round which 

 we entertained the most sanguine expectations of shortly finding the desired 

 passage into the Polar Sea. 



" Leaving the ships on the evening of the 8th of May, the fatigue-party 

 drew our sledges for three hours, which brought us to the most level part of 

 the island. I should have taken them a short distance farther had I not ob- 

 served that James Pringle stopped behind and lay on the snow, apparently 

 suffering from sickness or fatigue ; they were in consequence ordered to re- 

 turn to his assistance. Again advancing for two hours, we pitched our tent 

 for the night at the head of a small bay, the wind continuing fresh from the 

 northward. 



ff At six A.M. on the 9th we again set out and proceeded onwards for 9. 

 four hours over a plain, which terminated in a low rocky point stretching a 

 short distance into Hoppner's Strait, which separates Winter Island from the 

 main land. We here rested for the day ; no change had taken place in the 



