OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



233 



weather became so very unsettled as at times to hide the land a-bead of us. \ 822 - 



May. 



At eleven A.M. we stopped, thermometer 30°. Heavy snow and drift were ^rv/ 

 now falling, and the weather continued unchanged for sixty-eight hours, 

 during which we were confined to a tent shaped like the roof of a house, 

 and eleven feet by six in breadth, in a sitting posture, and all our clothes 

 became thoroughly wet from the thawing of the snow on the canvass. On 

 the forenoon of the 18th the weather improved, and the wind came round to 18. 

 N.N.E. Mr. Palmer and myself ascended the highest hill, two miles east of 

 the tent, and thence took bearings of the distant land as laid down in the 

 charts. The hills appeared to cease at the range on which we stood, and 

 the land as far as the first point, which was named Point Elizabeth, was a 

 dead flat. The high distant land to the N.E. appeared as if detached from 

 the plain, and as I was afterwards enabled to observe, proved to be a cape, 

 which I named Cape Wilson. We had from this place seen above two 

 days' journey to the eastward ; and as our provisions were half and our 

 wood nearly all expended, I thought it prudent to return, as there Was every 

 probability that the weather might prove equally precarious in our journey 

 homewards, or that snow blindness might again detain us. We therefore 

 made across Palmer Bay in our way back, and at the same time to avoid the 

 various bays and turnings of the land, we struck more inland. By the even- 

 ing of the 20th we had arrived within three miles of Hoppner's Strait. 20. 

 From our resting-place I observed that on the low islands, (which I had set 

 on the ,10th, and now named Turton's Shoals,) much heavy ice was thrown 

 up, iii all probability by the open water, which was observed in that direction 

 to extend as far as Winter Island. 



" On the 21st we resolved to make a forced march for the ships, as some 21. 

 of the people yet suffered from sore eyes, and our clothes and blankets had 

 been wet for several days. We therefore started at seven A.M., and crossing 

 to Winter Island, proceeded until past noon, when having rested for two 

 hours, we again pushed on for the ships and reached them at nine P.M. 



" It was a matter of regret, that the unfavourable state of the season and 

 the abundance of snow, which every where covered the ground, had pre- 

 cluded all possibility of making any remarks on the state or productions of 

 the country over which we had passed. Such rocks as were exposed were 

 of gneiss, and we also observed a few detached masses of granite. From 

 some pieces of decomposing feldspar which were found projecting through 



the snow, we picked a few lumps of iron pyrites of the size of a pea. Not a 



2 h 



