5 
Cape M'Bain, bearing W.S.W. 
the boat could be beached. After coasting the south side of the bay for nearly 
a mile within the Cape, we at last succeeded in hauling her up into a little nook 
between the grounded hummocks with which the whole line of coast was thickly 
strewed. At 6.15 p.m. we pitched the tent for the night, between two small 
shingle ridges, lighted a fire, and had tea, with some cold bacon and biscuit. 
Griffin Bay presented a most wild-looking scene of desolation ; the surround- 
ing hills were all covered with snow; huge masses of old ice which had been stranded 
by some enormous pressure, lay thickly strewed along its shores, in places piled 
up in chaotic confusion ; and the upper part of the bay was full of loose ice, the 
winter's floe having very recently broken up. The streams of ice which we met 
with on our way up channel doubtless came out of this and the adjacent bays. 
When about turning into my felt-bag for the night, I found it saturated 
with water, and preferred taking my rest on the buffalo robe, without any other 
covering than what the tent afforded, having a black tarpaulin bag containing 
my change of clothes (all thoroughly drenched by the seas the boat shipped 
over her bows) for my pillow. 
Saturday 21st. — Rose at 5 a.m., breakfasted, and started at six o'clock for the 
summit of Cape M'Bain, on which I found a cairn, containing a small gutta 
percha case, enclosing a circular printed in red ink on yellow tinted paper, dated 
Tuesday, May 13tli 1851, and stating that a searching party from the "Lady 
Franklin" and " Sophia" brigs had left, for emergencies, on the north point of the 
bay, a cache of sixty pounds of bread and forty pounds of pemmican. From 
the spot on which the cairn stands, I took sketches of Capes Bowden and 
Grinnell, and descended on the south side into Clark Bay, and whilst examining 
its shores, I saw an Arctic gull and three fine large white hares (Lepus glacialis), 
which, however, were far too shy and wary to allow me to approach within 
ball range of them : both barrels of my gun being loaded with ball, I discharged 
one after them, which sent them running off at a tremendous rate. 
Returning to our encampment, we struck the tent, and after re-embarking 
everything, made sail with a fair wind from the westward at 9-15 a.m., but still 
the same overcast and gloomy aspect of the sky. After we had proceeded for 
some distance, I discovered that a fine musk ox ( Ovihos moschatus) skull and 
horns, (evidently a bull's from the bases of the horns meeting over the forehead,) 
found by two of the boat's crew, on one of the ridges above the bay, in a ramble 
they took last night, — had been left behind on the beach. This was much to be 
regretted, as the specimen furnished pretty decisive evidence that these animals 
must once have existed here, and the probability is, that they do so still. It 
bore evident marks of long exposure to the weather, bleached white, porous, 
and time-worn. 
Standing over for Cape Grinnell, we encountered another heavy stream of 
ice, which crossed our course as it drifted rapidly out of Griffin Bay, cutting us 
off from the shore, and we had to get out the oars and pull round it. Our 
rudder, which we had made an attempt at repairing, again gave way. We 
passed a shoal of white whales {Beluga borealis), and saw the cairn on the point 
where the depot of provisions was left. After taking a sketch of the latter, 
I landed about noon upon a narrow shingle beach, on which -vve lighted a fire and 
cooked a warm mess, made of preserved mutton, soup and potatoes, for our dinner. 
On walking up the ridge to the cairn, through a heavy fall of snow, we found the 
provisions gone ; and as there were recent foot-prints up the side of the ridge 
leading to it, where the melting of the snow had left the soil sufficiently soft 
A 3 
