CHAPTER XIX. 
At 4 P.M. we left this interesting spot, for which 
some pleasant associations had suggested to me the 
name of “ Bessie’s Cove,” and commenced beating to 
the northward. The sea was crowded with entomos- 
traca and clios, on which myriads of Auks were feed- 
ing. The prospects of open water were mo.st cheering. 
One mile from the shore, we got soundings in rocky 
bottom, at twenty-three fathoms, and then, wishing to 
“fill up ’ with water before attempting our passage to 
the west, we stood close in, seeking a favorable spot. 
About eleven o’clock we were attracted by a bight, 
midway between Capes Y^ork and Dudley Diggs. Its 
foreground was of rugged syenitic rocks, and over these 
we could distinctly see the water rushing dowm in a 
foaming torrent. Here was a watering-place. 
By means of our old friends the warps, we hauled in 
so close that the sides of our vessels touched the rocks. 
A few inches only intervened between our keel and 
the shining pebbles. AVe could jump on shore as from 
a wharf. The sun was so low at this midnight hour 
as to bathe every thing in an atmosphere of Italian 
pink, deliciously unlike the Arctic regions. The recess 
was in blackest shadow, but the cliffs which formed 
the walls of the cove rose up into full sunshine. The 
Auks crowded these rocks in m^Tiads. So, with gun 
and sextant, I started on a tramp. 
This range, called by Sir John Ross the “ Arctic 
Highlands,” is not simply a continuation of the Du- 
neira chain, but a part of a great coast ridge, observed 
