OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



235 



appearance on board, and returned to his companions in the evening. From 1822. 

 this specimen of their travelling, of which we had as yet little experience, 

 we had great reason to hope that their days' journeys would be found but 

 short ones, and that therefore our distance round the north-eastern point of 

 the American continent was not very considerable. The snow felt softer, and 

 more melting was going on to-day than on any before observed, though only 

 a few black tips of the rocks were yet visible on shore. The animals now 

 began to appear in greater numbers ; for on the 25th, a flock of nearly two Sat. 25. 

 hundred long-tailed ducks were swimming about in the open water to the 

 south-east of the point. Some of the Esquimaux who came from the nearest 

 western village, also reported having seen a great many rein-deer ; but they 

 had not yet succeeded in killing any. 



On the 27th, at noon, the thermometer in the shade rose as high as 36°, Mon. 27. 

 the wind being from the 8.W., but on its changing to the N.W. on the fol- 

 lowing day, the temperature fell to 12° at midnight. The thermometer 

 indeed, at this time, seemed as it were to struggle to rise above the freezing 

 point in the course of the day, and not always with success. On the 30th, Thur. 30. 

 the first five grouse were killed. These birds were entirely white in their 

 plumage, except near the tip of the tail, where the feathers were of a glossy 

 black. They were in very good condition and weighed from seventeen to 

 eighteen ounces each. Several ducks and silvery gulls were also seen about 

 the point, and Mr. Fife fired at a swan. 



At the close of the month of May it was a matter of general observation, Frid.31.1 

 and of course of general regret, how few symptoms of thawing had yet 

 appeared either on shore or on the ice. Naturally pursuing our usual com- 

 parison with the circumstances of the former winter passed in these regions, 

 it was impossible not to recollect that Melville Island had, on the same day 

 two years before, advanced full as far as the country now before us, in 

 throwing off its winter covering. The parts of the land which were now the 

 most bare were the smooth round tops of the hills, on which here and there 

 occurred a little pool of water, from which, taking all together within half a 

 mile round the ships, we should at this time have had great difficulty in 

 filling half a tun. There were also on the lower lands a few dark un- 

 covered patches, looking, when viewed from the hills, like islets in an ex- 

 tensive sea. Vegetation seemed labouring to commence, and a few tufts 

 of the saxifraga oppositifolia, when closely examined, discovered some signs 

 of life. A botanist, in short, might have considered vegetation as begun, 



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