* 



OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 241 



tinge. The female subsequently laid a third egg, and soon afterwards both * 822 * 

 birds appeared to have wholly deserted the nest. w^^/ 



In the second week our progress with the canal had been consider- Sun. 16. 

 able, it being now completed within two hundred yards of the Fury's 

 stern. As the men had continued this cold and wet work Avithout inter- 

 mission for thirteen days together, they were now allowed a half holiday, 

 of which they began to stand in need. Several patients, as might have 

 been expected, had been added to the sick lists of both ships, but by 

 timely and skilful attention the complaints had hitherto been overcome. 

 The opening we had already made in the ice now rendered it so much 

 weaker, and consequently so much more liable to disruption than before, that 

 I considered it prudent to remove the tent, observatory, and instruments on 

 board, as we might at any time have been forced to sea without a moment's 

 warning. Mr. Fisher, therefore, having completed the desired observations, 

 every thing was re-embarked except the transit instrument and meridian- 

 mark, these being left to the last for continuing the determination of the 

 rates of the chronometers. Among the things now brought on board were 

 the garden frames, from Avhich about four pounds of wretched pea-leaves, 

 and mustard and cress, had been produced in each garden, by dint of nine 

 weeks' labour and attention. 



Having thus reported our own progress for the last week, I cannot omit 

 saying something of that which nature had been making in the same interval. 

 A few more flowers of the saxifraga oppositifolia had here and there been 

 procured ; but they were still curiosities, the more so as being almost the 

 only ones that had yet made their appearance. Some water had now been 

 obtained from the shore, by baling a gallon or two 'from each little pool, 

 and carrying a cask about on a sledge to be thus filled. At Melville Island, 

 at the same period, the ravines were beginning to be dangerous to pass, and 

 were actually impassable during the third week in June. 



The sea still continued open in the offing, whenever the wind blew from 

 the northward or westward, and the ducks, of the three species before men- 

 tioned, had even increased in numbers. Sand-pipers had also become 

 numerous on shore, and "a turnstone, being one of a single pair, was killed. 

 No grouse had been seen since those last noticed. A quantity of tangle- 

 weed appearing in the canal, some pieces of it were pulled up and mea- 

 sured ; the length of one of these was twenty-seven feet and a half, of which 

 the stalk occupied twelve. On the 17th we were enabled to unhang the Mon. 17. 



2 x 



