276 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



1822. bottle was sent down near the bottom, where, the temperature of the water 

 was found to be 31 §°, that of the surface at the time being 34|° by the same 

 thermometer. A great number of walruses Avere lying on pieces of ice, and 

 a few king-ducks and silvery gulls flying near the ships. 

 Sat. 20. On the morning of the 20th great quantities of ice continued to stream off 

 from the land, but as it was much too close to allow us to work in-shore 

 through it, we were under the necessity of standing back a little to the 

 westward, to avoid hampering the ships, and in hopes of the ice thus drift- 

 ing past us to the southward. We first, however, hove to for half an hour 

 to obtain upon a floe of ice the true variation, which proved to be 79° 20' 52" 

 westerly, and then pushed to the westward till we found the ships a little 

 more at liberty. In the course of this day's navigation we met with many 

 large floes, some of which appeared to have been recently detached from the 

 land. 



I cannot delay any longer to remark how valuable the geographical infor- 

 mation received from the Esquimaux had now proved to us, especially at 

 this particular crisis. On our arrival off Igloolik we had suddenly been 

 arrested in our progress by an impenetrable barrier of ice, appearing to 

 occupy the entrance of a large inlet or strait leading in the very direction 

 in which it was our business to seek and to force a passage. On tracing the 

 northern land as far as the ice would permit, we now had it in sight reaching 

 over nearly the whole extent of the eastern horizon, and almost to a south 

 bearing, rendering it at least as likely as not that it would be found to con- 

 tinue as far as Fox's Farthest, or even to join the land in that neighbour- 

 hood. It is true that, in any case, nothing short of actual examination was to be 

 deemed conclusive or admissible by us, and that therefore it was our business 

 to wait till such examination could be effected: but who that can place himself 

 for a moment in our situation will fail to appreciate the value of that infor- 

 mation, which left no doubt of the geographical position of the lands before 

 us, as respected the existence of the strait, and thus saved us the inconceiv- 

 able suspense and anxiety which entire ignorance on this subject would not 

 fail to have occasioned ? 

 Sun. 21. Finding that a further examination of the eastern lands could not at present 

 be carried on, without incurring the risk of hampering the ships at a time 

 when, for aught that we knew, the ice might be breaking up at the entrance 

 of the strait, we stood back to the westward, and, having fetched near the 

 middle of Igloolik, were gratified in observing that a large " patch " of the 



