36 
VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 
1819. 
August. 
Frid. 6. 
on their coming to the surface. We saw also, for the first time, one or two 
shoals of narwhals, (Monodon Monoceros), called by the sailors, sea-unicorns, 
A steady breeze springing up from the W.N.W. in the afternoon, the ships 
stood to the northward, till we had distinctly made out, that no passage to 
the westward could at present be found between the ice and the land. 
The weather having become clear about this time, we perceived that there 
was a large open space to the southward, where no land was visible ; 
and for this opening, over which there was a dark water-sky, our course was 
now directed. It fell calm again, however, in a few hours, so that at noon, 
on the 6th, we were still abreast of Prince Leopold’s Islands, which were so 
surrounded by ice, that we could not approach them nearer than four or five 
miles. The appearance of these islands is not less remarkable than that of 
the northern shore of the strait, being also stratified horizontally, but having 
none of those buttress-like projections before described. The different strata 
fonn so many shelves, as it were, on which the snow lodges ; so that, imme- 
diately after a fall of snow, the islands appear to be striped with white and 
brown alternately. The northernmost island, when seen from the E.N.E., 
appears like a level piece of table-land, being quite perpendicular at each 
extreme. 
The Griper having unfortunately sprung both her topmasts, Lieut. Liddon 
took advantage of the calm weather to shift them. The Hecla’s boats were 
at the same time employed in bringing on board ice, to be used as water ; 
a measure to which it is occasionally necessary to resort in these regions, 
when no pools or ponds are to be found upon the floes. In this case, berg- 
ice, when at hand, is generally preferred ; ’ but that of floes, which is in fact 
the ice of sea-water, is also abundantly used for this purpose : the only pre- 
caution which it is necessary to observe, being that of allowing the salt water 
to drain off before it is dissolved for use. One of our boats was upset by 
the fall of a mass of ice which the men were breaking, but fortunately no 
injury was sustained, 
A breeze sprung up from the N.N.W. in the evening, and the Griper being 
ready to make sail, we stood to the southward. The land, which now 
became visible to the south-east, discovered to us, that we were entering 
a large inlet, not less than ten leagues wide at its mouth, and in the centre 
of which no land could be distinguished. The western shore of the inlet, 
which extended as far as we could see to the S.S.W., was so encumbered 
with ice, that there was no possibility of sailing near it. I, therefore, ran 
