4 
Cape Bowden, from the summit of Cape M'Bain, W.N.W. (Magnetic.) 
On my return, therefore, the boat was once more launched upon the floe- 
pieces, which, from the wind drawing round more to the westAvard, had been 
packed closer together in shore; and at 10 a.m., by dint of great exertion, we at 
last succeeded in gaining the outer margin ; but it was noon before everything 
was got into the boat, having to make three sledge-trips from the shore with 
the provisions and other things. We now launched her into the sludgy surf, 
where, from her being so deep in the water, although with only a month's provi- 
sions on board, and this she could barely stow, her situation was for a few minutes 
a very critical one, from the risk of being swamped, till by a few lusty strokes of 
the oars, we were swept fairly out of this vortex of sludge and water into the 
open channel, and made sail with a fresh breeze for Cape Bowden, going at the 
rate of about five knots an hour. 
In doubling Cape Bowden, we had to make a considerable detour to avoid a 
long stream of ice extending from it to the distance of several miles ; and in 
running through the heavy swell and sludge which skirted it, carried away our 
rudder, through one of the pintles giving way, which, on examination, was found 
to have been defective, and the rudder altogether badly fitted. In short, the 
boat was an old one, which had been knocked about in the late expeditions, and 
not well adapted for such an enterprise as this. This accident, together with a 
freshening breeze accompanied by thick weather, snow, and sleet, compelled 
us to lower the sail, at 5 p.m. I now looked out for a spot to beach the 
boat, under Cape Bowden, a perpendicular cliff, rising to the height of upwards » 
of five hundred feet above the level of the sea ; but the extremely narrow strip 
of shingle beach at its base was so thickly studded with stranded hummocks 
and berg-pieces of ice, on which a heavy surf was breaking, as to render it alike 
impracticable either to haul up the boat or find room to pitch the tent 
afterwards. 
On the north side of Cape Bowden we opened a pretty little bay, of semicir- 
cular form, most symmetrically so, about a mile in breadth at its entrance, and 
much about the same in depth ; bounded on the north by a low, narrow penin- 
sula, suddenly rising into, and terminating in a tabular-topped cape, about two 
hundred feet in height, separating it from Griffin Bay. We pulled all round the 
little bay with the intention of encamping there for the night, but found the 
beach everywhere so hemmed in with a fringe of grounded hummocks of ice 
lashed by the surf, that not a single opening offered, even for running the boat's 
bow in between tliem. A flock of geese, a number of gulls, and several ravens, 
which wc had disturbed in their solitary retreat, took wing on our approach. 
I gave it the name of Clark Bay ; and the headland bounding it to the north, 
I called Cape M'Bain, after two esteemed friends ; the former, being one of the 
few remaining survivors who shared in the glorious battle of Trafalgar, and the 
latter, an old voyager to these regions. 
On rounding Cape M'Bain into Griffin Bay, the weather became so thick as 
nearly to conceal trie land, and we had some difficulty in finding a spot where 
