28 
undergone during our absence had been so great that we could barely recognize 
it. The heavy seas setting upon this shore during the late almost continuous 
succession of north-westerly gales had washed away the old beach, and thrown 
ridge upon ridge of shingle higher up the embankment, bringing the spot where 
our tent stood some yards nearer to the water's edge. We could nowhere find 
the horns ; they must either have been washed away or buried beneath the con- 
fused heaps of shingle and huge hummocks of stranded ice. 
At 1 P.M., after rounding Cape M'Bain, we hauled the boat up on a hard 
shingly beach, on the north side of Clark Bay, about half way up, and pitched 
the tent on a fine dry part of the ridge, on the margin of a frozen lake. Saw 
several gulls sitting on the beach ; and just as I landed a solitary raven ( Corvus 
cor ax), hovering overhead to reconnoitre our proceedings, fell a victim to his 
curiosity. I fired at him, and he fell dead upon the surfe,ce of the frozen lake. 
This bay appears to be a favourite retreat of the ravens ; we saw several on our 
last visit here, but none elsewhere. At 3 p.m. we had our usual warm mess for 
dinner, and opened the last gutta-percha case of biscuit. Three of our party 
having eaten rather too freely of the bear's liver for supper last night, complained 
to-day of violent headache, which readily yielded to a smart cathartic dose of 
medicine. 
At 5 P.M. I left the encampment, accompanied by one of my party, on a 
searching excursion over the ridges round the bay, to the summit of Cape 
Bowden, a distance of about six miles from the tent. Our course lay over a 
succession of ridges, and through ravines filled with deep snow, in many places 
above the knees at every step we set, and in the snow drifts crossing some of 
the deep hollows even up to the waist. We had to climb one very steep hill, 
separated from Cape Bowden by a deep saddle-like depression, nearly filled by 
a frozen lake. We rapidly descended to this, but had another toilsome ascent 
up the steep acclivities of the Cape ; and on reaching the summit had to 
walk a mile further over deep snow before I found the " Rescue's " cairn, 
which stands on the southern extremity of the ridge. We reached the spot 
at 7 P.M. I drew from beneath the pile of stones a broken common green quart 
bottle, containing a gutta-percha case, enclosing the usual printed notice on 
yellow paper left by the searching parties from the " Lady Franklin " and 
" Sophia." I tore a leaf from my memorandum book, and wrote on it 
a record of my visit, which I put in, and replaced the bottle in the cairn. 
Having taken a rough sketch of the coast, extending from Point Bowden to 
Cape Spencer, the whole outline of which appeared displayed beneath as on a 
map from this elevation. I commenced my return, and on reaching the extreme 
craggy north point of the ridge, I took another sketch of our encampment on 
the other side of Clark Bay, with Cape Grinnell and the headlands seen jutting 
out beyond it to the north. The spot on which I stood was a rugged crag, 
overhanging Wellington Channel ; the chasm or deep gorge which cleft the crag 
in two, forming a steep and precipitous descent to the beach below, was in part 
treacherously arched over with a frail crust of snow, rendering it a dangerous 
place to approach in a thick snow-drift, as one false step would hurl the 
wanderer headlong into the frowning gulf below. The brown weather-worn 
surface of the limestone strata was so arranged in horizontal layers on either 
side as to resemble reams of brown paper piled one above another more than 
anything else; as these vertical sections, on which the snow could find no resting- 
place, peered from beneath its otherwise universal covering of the land In the 
valley beneath lay the still frozen surface of the lake. Looking up channel the 
northern horizon presented a very remarkable tint of the deepest indigo blue — 
a peculiar tint, I do not recollect ever having seen before, and bounding it like a 
narrow band or streak, the sky elsewhere being overcast all round, with the 
exception of a wild glare of light which gleamed through the black canopy 
filirouding Cornwallis Land on the opposite shore. I heard the lively note of 
trie snow-bunting, the only indication of life around us in this still and desolate 
solitude. We neither saw bird or beast else throughout the whole of our 
excursion. Occasionally a track of the fox or hare met the eye, and we saw the 
footprints of the ptarmigan {Tetrao lagopus) on the acclivity of Cape BoAvden. 
After flcsceruling from the crag into the valley to the lake beneath, we toiled 
up tlie steep face of the ridge on the other side not a little jaded and fatigued 
wit}) t})e roijgli and rugged outward journey, and the agreeable prospect before 
us of a return over the same course, now with monotony instead of novelty 
