OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
53 
CHAPTER III. 
FAVOURABLE APPEARANCES OF AN OPEN WESTERLY PASSAGE — LAND TO THE 
NORTHWARD, A SERIES OF ISLANDS — GENERAL APPEARANCE OF THEM — 
MEET WITH SOME OBSTRUCTION FROM LOW ISLANDS SURROUNDED WITH 
ICE — REMAINS OF ESQUIMAUX HUTS, AND NATURAL PRODUCTIONS OF BYAM 
MARTIN ISLAND — TEDIOUS NAVIGATION FROM FOGS AND ICE — DIFFICULTY OF 
STEERING A PROPER COURSE — ARRIVAL AND LANDING ON MELVILLE ISLAND 
— PROCEED TO THE WESTWARD, AND REACH THE MERIDIAN OP 110°W. 
LONG., THE FIRST STAGE IN THE SCALE OF REWARDS GRANTED BY ACT 
OF PARLIAMENT. 
A CALM which prevailed during the night kept us nearly stationary off 1819. 
Beechey Island till three A.M. on the 23d, when a fresh breeze sprung up 
from the northward, and all sail was made for Cape Hotham, to the south- 
ward of which it was now my intention to seek a direct passage towards 
Behring’s Strait. Wellington channel, to the northward of us, was as open 
and navigable, to the utmost extent of our view, as any part of the Atlantic, 
but as it lay at right angles to our course, and there was still an opening at 
least ten leagues wide to the southward of Cornwallis Island, I could fortu- 
nately have no hesitation in deciding which of the two it was our business to 
pursue. If, however, the sea to the westward, which was our direct course, had 
been obstructed by ice, and the wind had been favourable, such was the tempt- 
ing appearance of Wellington channel, in which there was no visible impedi- 
ment, that I should probably have been induced to run through it, as a degree 
more or less to the northward made little or no difference in the distance we 
had to run to Icy Cape. The open channel to the westward did not, how- 
