OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



335 



abundance of additional clothing, we found the tent as warm as could be 1822 - 

 desired ; which was by no means the case at this season when we were lightly v^y-^ 

 equipped for travelling. The night was beautifully clear, with a bright moon- 

 light ; but a cloud of dense vapour hung over the land in most parts, which 

 was not entirely dissipated until late on the following day. 



We launched the boat at day-break on the 7th, and on arriving at the nar- Sat. 7, 

 rows, were glad to find that our other boats had left the place. The current 

 was as usual setting to the eastward, and in one place about the middle of 

 the narrows, where a large collection of squeezed-up ice formed a small 

 projecting point, it ran full four knots. Rowing over to the north shore, 

 we landed there to dine at a quarter past eleven, which was just the 

 time of high water, on an islet at the entrance of a bay. While rest- 

 ing here we observed the small pieces of ice setting fast to the westward, 

 and proceeding at two P.M., found the boat favoured by a considerable tide 

 in the same direction. This we kept till about five P.M., when we had 

 reached Liddon Island, and were there met by a tide from the westward, it 

 being then about low water by the shore ; from which it seemed reasonable 

 to conclude that the flood-tide came from the westward. At half-past eight 

 we arrived on board, where I was happy to find that all our parties had re- 

 turned without accident, except that Lieutenant Palmer had been wounded 

 in his hand, and temporarily blinded by a gun accidentally going off, from 

 which however he fortunately suffered no eventual injury. Lieutenant Pal- 

 mer reported his having ascertained that the ice still remained attached to 

 the land from the western part of Igloolik across to the continent, precluding* 

 all possibility of a passage to the westward in that direction. Lieutenant 

 Palmer's report contained numerous observations for the geographical posi- 

 tion of the parts of the land which he visited, and some notices respecting 

 the Esquimaux mode of burial, which will be given in another place. 



No alteration had taken place in the state of the ice during my absence, 

 except what was occasioned by a few small pieces now and then breaking oft' 

 from the margin, which however scarcely effected a change that was sensible 

 in the course of several days. The ships had therefore remained undis- 

 turbed at the station where I left them ; and in order to occupy the time as 

 usefully as possible, Captain Lyon had despatched a party under the com- 

 mand of Lieutenant Hoppner to travel along some low land next the sea, to 

 the westward ; with the hope of his thus being enabled, by escaping the 

 rugged ground encountered by Lieutenant Reid, to add something more to 



