368 



A JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



side has received the appellation of Inman Harbour, after my friend 

 the Professor at the Koyal Naval College, Portsmouth; and to a 

 group of islands to seaward of it, we gave the name of Jameson, in 

 honour of the distinguished Professor of Mineralogy at Edinburgh. 



We had much wind and rain during the night; and by the 

 morning of the 26th a great deal of ice had drifted into the inlet. 

 We embarked at four and attempted to force a passage, when the 

 first canoe got enclosed, and remained for some time in a very 

 perilous situation : the pieces of ice, crowded together by the action 

 of the current and wind, pressing strongly against its feeble sides. 

 A partial opening, however, occurring, we landed without having 

 sustained any serious injury. Two men were then sent round the 

 bay, and it was ascertained that instead of having entered a narrow 

 passage between an island and the main, we were at the mouth of a 

 harbour, having an island at its entrance ; and that it was necessary 

 to return by the way we came, and get round a point to the 

 northward. This was, however, impracticable, the channel being 

 blocked up by drift ice ; and we had no prospect of release except 

 by a change of wind. This detention was extremely vexatious, as 

 we were losing the benefit of a fair wind, and expending our stock 

 of provision. In the afternoon the weather cleared up, and several 

 men went hunting, but they were unsuccessful. During the day the 

 ice floated backwards and forwards in the harbour, moved by 

 currents, not regular enough to deserve the name of tide, and 

 which appeared to be governed by the wind. We perceived great 

 diminution by melting in the pieces near us. That none of this ice 

 survives the summer is evident, from the rapidity of its decay ; and 

 because no ice of last year's formation was hanging on the rocks. 

 Whether any body of it exists at a distance from the shore, we 

 cannot determine. 



The land around Cape Barrow, and to Detention Harbour; 

 consists of steep craggy mountains of granite, rising so abruptly 



