OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



355 



fall of the water by the shore. The natural inference with respect to the \ 822 - 



Sept. 



current seemed at the time to be, that it is occasioned by the annual melt- k^^J 

 ing of the snows upon the shores of the Polar Sea, for which this Strait 

 affords the only outlet leading to the southward, within perhaps some hun- 

 dreds of miles ; and this supposition appeared the more reasonable from the 

 circumstance of the current having just now ceased, when the streams from 

 the land were once more arrested by the frost of approaching winter. It 

 must however be confessed, that this conjecture will not hold good with 

 respect to the current at Winter Island, where it was generally found to be 

 setting to the southward throughout the whole of the winter. 



After clearing the narrows we ran down a few miles and then hove to for 

 the night, which proved dark and squally, the wind having increased and 

 veered more to the southward. The hours of darkness, in a confined and 

 little-known navigation, are always anxious ones; but our situation was 

 to-night rendered still more critical, by the compasses being affected some- 

 what in the same manner as described on the morning of the 26th of August, 

 and in a situation from three to five miles to the southward of the same spot. 

 What the amount of the change was, the darkness prevented our deter- 

 mining ; but it could not have been less than six or seven points, as was 

 ascertained about the time of our heaving to, by the bearing of the Hecla 

 astern of us, without which guide we should have imputed it to an alteration 

 in the wind. We kept however in deep water during the night, and at 

 daylight on the 2tst made all sail along Cockburn Island on which the wind Sat. 21. 

 now directly blew. No ice was here seen to oppose our progress except 

 some broad streams of " pancake-ice ;" but it being impossible to run down 

 on a dead lee-shore to carry on the proposed examination, I made a tack to 

 fetch Tern Island and anchored under its lee for the night in thirteen 

 fathoms, at the distance of a mile from the shore. The island was now 

 so covered with snow that it might easily be mistaken for a floe of heavy 

 ice till closely approached. A number of sea-horses were seen here, and 

 Captain Lyon struck some of them, but was prevented securing them by 

 their taking to the young ice, through which the boats could not make their 

 way. 



At break of day on the 22d we weighed and stood to the north-eastward, Sun. 22. 

 with the intention of proceeding in the further examination of the shores of 

 Cockburn Island. The wind, however, freshened up so suddenly from the 

 S.E.b.S., that it was impossible to make any progress ; and at half-past eight 



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