CH. XVI] 
William Baffin 
H3 
was forced onwards between the floes, they got closer 
and closer " until we could see no place to put in the 
ship's head." Then the able navigator wisely stood in 
towards the shore, and anchored off Cape Shackleton 
among many islands in 73 0 45'. Here Eskimos came in 
their kayaks to barter, with seal-skins and the horns of 
narwhals, and the place was accordingly named Horn 
Sound. They stayed there for six days, making sail 
again on the 18th of May. Fortunately 1616 was a 
remarkably open year and the Discovery sailed across 
Melville Bay in two days. Two hundred and thirty-four 
years afterwards it took the writer forty days. 
Baffin was now in the open water to the north of the 
bay, formed by the drifting of ice to the south. Many 
narwhals were noticed, and on the 2nd July the ship was 
off a headland in 76 0 35' N. which received the name of 
"Sir Dudley Digges his Cape/ 1 They then passed a sound 
with several bays and inlets, and an island forming two 
entrances, which was named Wolstenholme Sound. Passing 
onwards a gale began to blow from W. by S. which split 
their foresail, and when it cleared a little they found 
themselves embayed in a sound. Standing over to the 
south-east side, an anchor was let go, but both anchor 
and cable were lost. The wind blew with such fury that 
they could find no anchorage, and were obliged to stand 
off and on. In the afternoon the wind had less force 
and they stood out. Many whales were seen in the 
sound, so it received the name of Whale Sound, in 
77° 30' N. 
Baffin then anchored off an island he named Hakluyt 
Island, between Sir Thomas Smith's Sound to the north, 
and Whale Sound to the south, but it was such bad 
weather that the boat could not land. Of Sir Thomas 
Smith's Sound, Baffin says that it runs to the north of 
78 0 and that " it is admirable in one respect because in 
it is the greater variation of the compass of any part 
of the known world ; for by divers good observations 
I found it to be above five points, or 56 0 variation to the 
westward." " Also this sound seemeth to be good for 
the killing of whales, it being the greatest and largest 
in all the bays." 
It was blowing very hard when the Discovery left her 
