44 
VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 
1819. coast was distinctly visible at ■four, times that distance. We remarked, in 
standing off and on, near the main body of the ice, that the clear atmosphere 
commenced at a short distance from its margin ; so that we were enabled to 
obtain a few lunar observations near the edge of the ice, while, at the distance 
of a mile to the eastward of it, the sun was altogether obscured by fog. 
This being the anniversary of the birth-day of His Royal Highness the 
Prince Regent, it naturally suggested to us the propriety of honouring the 
large inlet, which we had been exploring, and in which we still were 
sailing, with the name of Prince Regent’s Inlet. 
Frid. 13. The weather was beautifully calm and clear on the 13th, when, being 
near an opening in the eastern shore, I took the opportunity of examining 
it in a boat. It proved to be a bay, a mile wide at its entrance, and three 
miles deep in an E.b.S. direction, having a small but snug cove on the north 
side, formed by an island, between which and the main land is a bar of 
rocks, which completely shelters the cove from sea or drift ice. We found 
the water so deep, that in rowing close along the shore we could seldom 
get bottom with seven fathoms of line ; and, as time could not be spared to 
obtain the exact depth, the soundings in the annexed Plan are necessarily 
very imperfect. The cliffs on the south side of this bay, to which I gave 
the name of Port Bowen, after Captain James Bowen, one of the Commis- 
sioners of His Majesty’s navy, resemble, in many places, ruined towers and 
battlements ; and fragments of the rocks were constantly falling from above. 
At the head of the bay is an extensive piece of low flat ground, intersected 
by numerous rivulets, which, uniting at a short distance from the beach, 
formed a deep and rapid stream, near the mouth of which we landed. 
This spot was, I think, the most barren I ever saw, the ground being 
almost entirely covered with small pieces of slaty limestone, among which 
no vegetation appeared for more than a mile, to which distance Mr. Ross 
and myself walked inland, following the banks of the stream. Among 
the fragments, we picked up one piece of limestone, on which was the 
impression of a fossil-shell. We saw here a great number of young black 
guillemots, (Colymhus Grylle,) and a flock of ducks, which we supposed to 
be of the eider species. 
The latitude observed at the mouth of the stream was 73° 12' 11", and 
the longitude, by chronometers, 89° 02' 08". The variation of the needle, 
observed in the morning, at three or four miles’ distance from the land, was 
114° 16' 43" westerly. From twenty minutes past eleven till a quarter after 
