OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



313 



Those on the main land were mostly remarkable, as having still a patch of A 1 u 8 or ^' 

 level solid ice, about ten inches thick, occupying the whole extent of them, y^r+j 

 except for a space of fifteen or twenty feet all round the shores, where the 

 ice had been dissolved by the warmth of the land. To us the fact was new 

 at this season, and is still somewhat unaccountable. Whether so strange 

 a circumstance is to be attributed to locality or to an unfavourable season, 

 the experience of a single year or two is not sufficient to determine. Three 

 long-tailed ducks were killed out of a flock swimming in a lake ; these birds 

 being in moult could not rise from the water, but their quickness in diving 

 makes it extremely difficult to shoot them. A hare of a very dark colour 

 was seen near the tent, though one of these animals perfectly white had 

 been noticed on the same spot only the day before. It was high water by 

 the shore in Richards's Bay at a quarter before eight this evening. 



At thirty minutes past five A.M. on the 19th, the ice was observed to be Mon. 19. 

 setting fast to the eastward in the Strait, as indeed it had always been 

 whenever we had obtained a distinct view of it, which circumstance tended 

 very strongly to confirm the impression we had before received of a per- 

 manent easterly current. Having employed a couple of hours in re-packing 

 our baggage for travelling, we set out on the ice at six o'clock and reached 

 the small island at nine ; where we were saluted as before by swarms of 

 troublesome mosquitoes. The tide having fallen a little by the marks on the 

 rocks we judged it to have been high water at about half-past eight. Proceed- 

 ing again at half an hour past noon, and being now aware that our easiest 

 travelling was on the level ice, through the pools on which we had learned 

 to pass with less delay than at first, we were enabled to reach Deer Island 

 at a single journey, by taking care to avoid all the broken ice near the land. 

 This latter precaution was indeed so necessary, that, when at length we 

 wished to go on shore, it took us above an hour to effect the last two hundred 

 yards, and that with more wet, cold, and fatigue than we had experienced 

 in walking the whole preceding journey. We landed however at five P.M., 

 and obtaining from the hills a distant view of the ships, observed that they 

 were employed in warping among the ice. There was now a great deal of 

 open water in the Strait, and the easternmost of the Bouverie Islands were 

 entirely cleared of the ice on which we had travelled upon our outward 

 journey. We here found some more of the verdigris-green substance, though 

 on the opposite side of the same island as before, occurring precisely under 

 similar circumstances. A little animal ran up the rocks near our tent, which 



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