OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



275 



well in consequence of the continuance of the foggy weather, as on account 1822 - 

 of the sea being entirely free from drift-ice in this neighbourhood. J^Jij 



We continued to beat to the south-eastward during the night, the weather 

 being less foggy, but the atmosphere still moist and uncomfortable. In the 

 first watch we came to a line of tangle-weed floating on the surface, extend- 

 ing many miles in length, and marking by its position the margin of a strong 

 tide setting the ships towards the islands round which we were trying to 

 beat. We frequently shoaled in a single cast from fifteen to eight and a 

 half fathoms, and were several times obliged to keep before the wind to 

 deepen the water. This tide appeared the more striking, as near Igloolik 

 we could not perceive the ships to be influenced by any stream or current : 

 here however it proved so strong that we could make little or no way against 

 it till after midnight. 



The favourable tide continued till about six A.M. on the 19th, when we Frid. 19. 

 had made considerable progress, but without much hope of succeeding in 

 our project of getting within the islands. This, as we advanced, proved more 

 and more impracticable, as we found that the land-ice still occupied all the 

 intervals between the islands as well as between them and Keiyuk-tarruoke, 

 and in many places still projected also a mile or two to seaward. In the 

 course of the forenoon the weather cleared up, and at noon, having still con- 

 tinued to sail to the eastward, we observed in lat. 69° 25' 05", the longi- 

 tude, by chronometers, being 79° 57' 10". In this situation a great deal of 

 land chiefly low, and much of it apparently insular, was in sight to the east- 

 ward ; but the distance at which we were kept by the ice prevented our fairly 

 examining it. In the evening, however, having run as far to the eastward as 

 the longitude of 79° 22' 16" by good observations, we found ourselves pretty 

 well embayed, the land extending as far round as a S.b.E. bearing. The ice 

 was here also for the first time loose and detached, occasionally streaming off 

 from the land, but not open enough to allow of our working among it. In 

 hopes therefore of its being entirely drifted from the land by the northerly 

 breeze that had lately sprung up, we lay to during the night, watching for 

 an opportunity to get within it, being determined to leave nothing undone 

 that might eventually facilitate our progress alongshore to the westward. 

 The soundings were here small, varying rapidly as the ships were swept over 

 the ground by the tide, but seldom amounting to twenty fathoms. The bot- 

 tom was covered with broken shells, of which great numbers always came 

 up with the lead. Having a deep cast of thirty-five fathoms, Dr. Marcet's 



2 N 2 



