300 



ARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION. 



was discovered ahead. But seal, land, mountains, and clouds be- 

 came closed in by thick fog; a snow-storm came on from the 

 W.N.W., and it soon blew a gale. 



This weather compelling us to hold over, we all left the sledge 

 and dogs, and went a few rods on to the land, to prospect for a 

 suitable spot for an encampment. We found one bj the side of 

 a mountain of rock. Here we broke up a beam — a part of our 

 sledge — for fuel to prepare our coffee. We ought, for this pur- 

 pose, to have taken with us more of the ooksook of the seal taken 

 the day previous ; but we expected to have captured another by 

 that time. We saw two in the morning, but they were shy, and 

 went down. Had it not been for the hummocks, we should have 

 pursued our course toward Hall's Island ; but it requires weather 

 in which one can see more than five fathoms ahead to travel safe- 

 ly over such ice. 



The land on which we here encamped is an island about a 

 quarter of a mile long, which I have named Sylvia,* at the east 

 side of the entrance to Lupton Channel. When on the highest part 

 of it, about 500 feet above the sea, I drew the following sketch. 



VIEW FEOM THE TOP OF SYLVIA ISLAND. 



* After the daughter of Henry Grinnell. Sylvia Island is in lat. 62° 35^' N., 

 long. 64° 36' W. 



