OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
25 
of two miles in an east direction from it. We soon after discovered the flag- 1819. 
staff which had been erected on Possession Mount on the former expedition ; 
an object which, though insignificant in itself, called up every person imme- 
diately on deck to look at and to greet it as an old acquaintance. The Griper 
being considerably astern, I thought it a good opportunity to go on shore, 
in order to make some observations, while she was coming up. Captain 
Sabine and myself, therefore, left the ship, and landed in the same spot, 
near the mouth of the stream in Possession Bay, where observations had 
been made the preceding year. We found so much surf on the beach as to 
make it necessary to haul the boat up, to prevent her being stove. A 
number of loose pieces of ice had been thrown up above the ordinary high- 
water mark ; some of these were so covered by the sand which the sea 
had washed over them, that we were at a loss to know what they were, till 
a quantity of it had been removed. From the situation and appearance of 
these masses, it occurred to some of us that similar masses, found under 
ground in those spots called Kaltusw, in the islands near the coast of Siberia, 
might thus have been originally deposited. 
The land immediately at the back of Possession Bay rises in a gentle 
slope from the sea, presenting an open and extensive space of low ground, 
flanked by hills to the north and south. In this valley, and even on the hills, 
to the height of six or seven hundred feet above the sea, there was scarcely 
any snow, but the mountains at the back were completely covered with it. 
The bed of the stream which winds along the valley is in many places several 
hundred yards wide, and in some parts from thirty to forty feet deep ; but the 
quantity of water which it contained at this season was extremely small 
in proportion to the width between the banks, not exceeding forty feet on 
an average, and from one to three feet only in depth near the mouth of the 
stream. This feature is common in every part of the Polar regions in 
which we have landed ; the beds, or ravines, being probably formed by the 
annual dissolution of the snow during a long series of years. Some pieces 
of birch-bark having been picked up in the bed of this stream, in 1818, which 
gave reason to suppose that wood might be found growing in the interior, I 
directed Mr. Fisher to walk up it, accompanied by a small party, and to occupy 
an hour or two, while the Griper was coming up, and Captain Sabine and 
myself were employed upon the beach, in examining the nature and pro- 
ductions of the country. 
Mr, Fisher reported, on his return, that he had followed the stream between 
E 
