CAI’T, MARKHAM’S VOYAGE TO IIUUSOX’s BAY. 3-15 
■were passing tlirougli loose streams of pack-ice, and saw some large 
icebergs, several must liavo been two hundred feet in height, and 
were probably offshoots from tlie great glaciers of Baffin Bay, that 
had drifted down through Davis Straits. On July 4th they were 
off Nachvak, where there is a Hudson Bay establishment, and an 
attempt w.as made to communicate, in order to leave letters, but 
the ice for a width of ten miles off the coast was found to be 
so closely packed as to make the attempt useless. Numbers of 
Walrus were there seen ; the ice was found to extend to a distance 
of some sixty or seventy miles from the coast. On July hth the 
“Alert” reached the entrance to llutlson Bay, but unfortunately 
the Aveather Avas so tliick Avith fog and snoAV that the position 
of the vessel could not bo ascertained either by astronomical 
observation or bearings of the land, and at the .same time she Avas 
surrounded hy loose ice. This state of affairs lasted until the 
8th of July, Avlien, during a partial cleamnce, land Avas sighted 
about a mile off, Avhich Avas identified as a headland of Eclipse 
Harbour on the coast of I.abrador, anil it Avas found that during 
the past three days the ship had drifted some sixty miles to 
the southward. During that Avholo time the “Alert” aa-.os 
surrounded by loose ice ; this packed and loosened at intervals 
according to the action of tlie tides. 
On the morning of the 9th of July a bearing of Cape Chudloigh 
Avas at length obtained, and by noon of the same da}’, the ship was 
once again at the entrance to the Straits, at Avhich time not a 
particle of ice Avas visible. On the morning of the 11th of July, 
the Savage Islands Avere reached. The “Alert” anchored for a 
couple of hours at Ashe Inlet, and on the morning of the 
11th of July shaped a course to the Avestward, finding much ice, 
but not too closely packed to oppose the ship’s progress entirely, 
though on rare occasions it was retarded ; large floes of ice about 
half a mile in length Avere seen. 
On July the 20th the ^leteorological Station on Western Digges 
Island Avas reached (the Laperriere group), and the “Alert” 
remained there until the 25tli of July, being detained for three 
days longer than Avas intended by the ice setting in, and jAaeking 
across the mouth of the harbour. 
After leaving Digges Islands, some tightly packed ice Avas met 
Avith ; but in twenty-four hours’ time, and Avithiu seven miles of 
