324 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



August directions. For each of the land-parties a depot of several days' provision 

 ^y^n; and fuel was, in case of accidents, established on the beach ; and Lieutenant 

 Palmer took in his boat a supply for nine days. 



The fact of our never having seen a stream of tide or current setting 

 through the narrows of the Strait in any direction but to the eastward, made 

 it an object of curiosity to ascertain by observation on the spot during at least 

 two consecutive tides, whether or not a permanent current existed there. 

 I determined therefore on despatching Mr. Crozier on this service ; and the 

 absence of so many of our people necessarily limiting our means, his 

 establishment only consisted of the small nine-feet boat and two marines, 

 with which he left us under sail at one P.M., being provisioned for four days. 

 I directed Mr. Crozier to land and pitch his tent somewhere about Cape 

 North-East, and after carefully observing the tides, both on shore and in the 

 offing, for the whole of one day, immediately to return to the ships. The 

 weather improving as the day advanced, a good deal of snow disappeared 

 from the islands, but little or none on the rugged high land of the continent. 

 Sat. 31. On the 31st, the wind blew fresh and cold from the north-west, which 

 caused a quantity of ice to separate from the fixed floe in small pieces during 

 the day, and drift past the ships. Early in the morning, a she-bear and her 

 two cubs were observed floating down on one of these masses, and coming 

 close to the Hecla were all killed. The female proved remarkably small,, 

 two or three men being able to lift her into a boat. A large party of us from 

 each ship passed several hours on shore at Liddon Island, in examining its 

 natural productions. The basis of this island, which rises perhaps in some 

 parts two hundred feet above the level of the sea, is a brownish sandstone, 

 though the same substance is abundantly found of different colours, such as 

 red of various shades, dark brown, white, and striped with curved lines in 

 the manner described near Cape North-East. On the higher parts of the 

 land, nodules of white quartz, from an inch and a half in diameter to the 

 size of a grain of sand, are found in large quantities imbedded in the sand- 

 stone rock, and a great variety of other substances are lying in loose pieces 

 on the beach. Of these one of the most abundant was a species of iron- 

 stone which, from its weight, appeared to be a rich ore; and a large rock on 

 the beach contained a good deal of asbestos. A great variety of other 

 specimens were procured from this island, which was however almost 

 entirely barren of the productions of the animal and vegetable kingdoms. 

 Of the former we saw only a single herd of deer, and the little vegeta- 



