476 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



August wnile tnose ^ rom tne opposite quarter could alone drive it off the land. The 

 v-r-W> ice was here very heavy, being covered with large hummocks, reminding us 

 of what we had to encounter in coming up this coast. It was also covered 

 in almost every part with sand and small stones, making its general aspect of 

 a brownish colour, only a few patches of white ice appearing here and 

 there. How these substances had been brought here in such abundance, 

 another year's experience of the phenomena of these seas had not taught us 

 to explain ; and before we left this coast, we saw many hundred square miles 

 of ice thus covered. In all the intervals between the hummocks were large 

 pools of water, which had in many instances formed deep circular beds, 

 twenty or thirty feet in diameter, in shape like the crater of a volcano. 

 Most of the pools had found their way through to the sea below, and the 

 smallest swell would have broken every floe-piece into numberless masses : 

 indeed, as it was, there were few to be seen of more than three or four acres 

 in extent. 



Being thus detained, I despatched Mr. Ross to Ooglit to observe the 

 meridian altitude, which gave the latitude of its south point 68° 23' 58", 

 and he found the mineralogical character exactly the same as that of 

 Igloolik. About the middle of the island, which is quite low, are two 

 bone winter-huts, conspicuous at some distance to seaward. It was low 

 water, at half-past eleven A.M., making the time of high water here on full 

 and change days a quarter past eleven. 

 15 to 21. We were now for some days all but beset in this neighbourhood, calms 

 or light southerly and easterly breezes constantly prevailing. During this 

 time the main body of ice remained, in most parts, close to the shore ; 

 leaving us only a "hole" of water to work about in, and much nearer to 

 the land than on this shoal and shelving coast was altogether safe for 

 the ships. Notwithstanding this, however, we had soon occasion to ob- 

 serve that they not only kept their ground, but even drew to the southward, 

 owing no doubt to the current before found to set in that direction along- 

 the coast. 



Frid. 22. On the morning of the 22d, being off Amitioke, the ice became more 

 slack along the shore, and a breeze from the northward enabled us to make 

 some progress. I may here take occasion to remark that, in the course of 

 this summer, we experienced not only an unusual proportion of southerly and 

 easterly winds, but observed also, that these were more frequently attended 



