OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



475 



several places, that one or two individuals might not make a prize of the 1823. 



. . r August. 



whole. x-^r-w 

 The Hecla rejoining us on the morning of the 12th, we stood out to the Tues. 12. 

 eastward and finally took our departure from Igloolik. In the forenoon a 

 thick fog came on, which, with a good deal of loose ice drifting about, gave 

 us some trouble in clearing the land ; after which we made the Calthorpe 

 Islands, the wind being southerly with thick rainy weather. This con- 

 tinued till the following afternoon, when a change of wind soon brought a Wed. 13. 

 clearer atmosphere, enabling us to bear up for the main-land, which we made 

 near the three islands called Ooglit, and then ran along it to the southward 

 in a perfectly open sea. We saw here a great many walruses, but no ani- 

 mals of any other kind. In the course of the night the favourable breeze 

 failed us and, on the morning of the 14th, was succeeded by a southerly Thur. 14. 

 wind, the ships being close to another island called Ooglit about twelve 

 leagues to the S.S.W. of the others. We were here immediately visited by 

 our old acquaintance the Esquimaux, several of whom came off in their 

 canoes in the course of the morning, as if determined to lose no opportunity 

 of profiting by us. Among these was our worthy old friend Nannow, to 

 whom every body was glad to give something ; and indeed they all received 

 as many presents as their canoes could safely carry or tow on shore. Their 

 tents, nine in number, were pitched on the main-land, a little to the 

 northward of Ooglitt, at a station they call Ag-wisse-d-wik, of which we had 

 often heard them speak at Igloolik. They now also pointed out to us Ami- 

 tioke, at the distance of four or five leagues to the southward and westward, 

 which proved to be the same piece of low land that we had taken for it in 

 first coming up this coast. The Esquimaux told us that a number of their 

 younger men were inland in pursuit of deer, and that the rest had abundant 

 supplies of walrus, which animals we saw in considerable numbers about 

 this place. 



The failure of the wind was not the only cause of our detention here ; the 

 ice, whose margin we had begun to perceive as we approached this part of 

 the coast, now closing in completely with the land, so as to prevent the pos- 

 sibility of our making any farther progress for the present. The closeness of 

 the main body of ice to the land at this time, compared with its position a 

 month earlier the preceding year, was undoubtedly to be attributed to the 

 prevalence of southerly and easterly winds which we had lately experienced, 



3 P 2 



