OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



361 



several small rising banks presented a similar disposition, but I did not notice 

 any boulders of harder substances resting upon any 'of them, nor indeed could 

 we find a single specimen of any other mineral than limestone. Walking 

 quickly to the westward along this shore, which afforded excellent tra- 

 velling, we soon perceived that our business was almost at an end, the 

 inlet terminating a very short distance beyond, where I had first traced it, 

 the apparent turn to the northward being only that of a shallow bay. 

 To make quite sure, however, I sent Mr. Ross on with one of the men, 

 to walk to the head of it, while I with the other turned off to examine the 

 cliff-land to the southward. We found the slope of this to be composed as 

 was conjectured, of the debris falling from the perpendicular ridge above, 

 the whole being limestone without a single exception that we could discover. 

 The slope making an angle of about 60° with a horizontal line, and being in 

 some parts covered with snow, we with difficulty ascended it ; but found the 

 upper ridge wholly impracticable on account of the snow overhanging the 

 summit. The height of the perpendicular rock, which lies in broad hori- 

 zontal strata, is from twenty to thirty feet, the whole cliff being about one 

 hundred and eighty above the level of the other ground. At the bottom of 

 the slope lay numerous heavy square blocks of the limestone ; and upon 

 these, as well as on some of the smaller fragments, I observed impressions of 

 fossil-shells. 



Having finished my examination of this remarkable piece of land, which 

 extends between four and five miles in an east and west direction, I went to 

 meet Mr. Ross ; who reported that, having walked three or four miles to the 

 westward, he found the inlet terminate about two miles further in that direc- 

 tion. Having thus completed our object, we set out on our return, and 

 reached the boat at three P.M. after a walk of twenty miles. The weather 

 fortunately remaining extremely mild, no young ice was formed to obstruct 

 our way, and we arrived on board at noon the following clay, after an 

 examination peculiarly satisfactory, inasmuch as it proved the non-exist- 

 ence of any water communication with the Polar Sea, however small and 

 unfit for the navigation of ships, to the southward of the Strait of the Fury 

 and Hecla. The creek whose extent to the westward we had lately deter- 

 mined, I named after Captain John Quilliam of the Royal Navy ; and the 

 Inlet, of which this is a continuation, was distinguished by the name of 

 Hooper Inlet, after my friend Mr. Hooper, purser of the Fury. 



I found from Captain Lyon on my return that, in consequence of some ice 



