18 
Sketched by H. M'Cormiclc, li.N. 
Westernmost Bluffs of Alfred Bay, bearing E. by S., and Peak, E.S.E., as seen from the 
summit of Owen Point. 
was nearly two o'clock in the morning before we turned in, all thoroughly 
knocked up with the day's exertions. 
Friday 27th. — Morning overcast; I left the tent at 8 a.m., and whilst breakfast 
was. preparing, ascended the rugged point above our encampment to get a view 
of our position. At first scrambling over a confused pile of rocky fragments, swell- 
ing out above into a broad, smooth, and round-backed hill about three hmidred 
feet in height, commanding a view of the shores of the curve of the coast to the 
northward of it, laid down in the chart as Prince Alfred Bay ; an isolated 
peak, apparently some little distance inland, just showing itself over the highest 
range of hills on the north side ; this ridge terminating in two black table-topped 
bluff headlands, running far out to the westward, but the horizon was too hazy 
for making out distant objects sufficiently clear for getting the different bearings 
correctly, which, as this spot promised to be the extreme limit of our journey, 
I was the more anxious to obtain before I commenced my return, more especially 
as the sun had been hid from our view by fogs, mists, and constantly-overcast 
skies, accompanying the tempestuous weather which has attended us in all our 
movements since we left the ship; so that no opportunity has offered for getting 
observations for the latitude and longitude, and consequently my little pocket 
sextant has remained idle in its case. 
In the hope that the weather might clear up about noon, I returned to the 
tent to breakfast, having seen only about half a dozen snow-buntings flitting 
about the hill-top. My party were glad to take a siesta in the tent to-day, so 
knocked up were they after their laborious and toilsome forced march of yester- 
day, dragging a heavily laden sledge over a distance of about thirty miles, 
having actually travelled this within the space of sixteen hours, at the average 
rate of rather more than two miles in an hour, resting for dinner and tea an hour 
at each meal ; the longest sledging journey by far, I believe that has yet been 
accomplished in one day without the aid of dogs. 
At 1.30 P.M., during a temporary clearing away of the mist, I again ascended 
the hill above our tent, bounding the low shores of Baring Bay on the north, 
which I have named Owen Point, in honour of my friend Professor Owen, the 
distinguished naturalist and Cuvier of our own country, who has evinced a hvely 
interest in the Franklin search and Polar discovery. 
Baring Bay, indeed, scarcely deserves the name of a bay, it is httle more than 
a broad sweep in of the coast, and is so shoal on entering it from the south- 
ward, that I could sec the pebbles at the bottom for several miles off shore; and 
had good reason to remember the heavy ground swell that rolled over it in surges 
threatening destruction to the boat every minute, in the gale which drove us 
before it, to seek the only place of shelter which the whole length and breadth 
of its shores afforded under the Black Mount. 
A black table-topped bluff, bearing E. by S. by compass, forms the western- 
most extremity of Alfred Bay, on the north side ; and a little to the east- 
ward of this, "peering just above the high ridge of land, is a peak bearing 
