OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
75 
CHAPTER IV. 
FURTHER EXAMINATION OF MELVILLE ISLAND — CONTINUATION OF OUR PRO- 
GRESS TO THE WESTWARD — LONG DETENTION BY THE ICE — PARTY SENT 
ON SHORE TO HUNT DEER AND MUSK-OXEN — RETURN IN THREE DAYS, AFTER 
LOSING THEIR WAY — ANXIETY ON THEIR ACCOUNT — PROCEED TO THE 
WESTWARD, TILL FINALLY STOPPED BY THE ICE — IN RETURNING TO THE 
EASTWARD THE GRIPER FORCED ON THE BEACH BY THE ICE — SEARCH FOR, 
AND DISCOVERY OF, A WINTER HARBOUR ON MELVILLE ISLAND — OPERA- 
TIONS FOR SECURING THE SHIPS IN THEIR WINTER QUARTERS. 
As the wind still continued to blow strong from the northward on the morn- 
ing of the 6th, without any appearance of opening a passage for us past Cape 
Hearne, I took the opportunity of sending all our boats from both ships at ^ 
eight A.M,, to bring on board a quantity of moss-peat which our gentlemen 
reported having found near a small lake at no great distance from the sea, 
and which I directed to be substituted for part of our usual allowance of 
coals. Captain Sabine also went on shore to make the requisite observations, 
and several of the officers of both ships to sport, and to collect specimens of 
natural history. The boats rowed round the point on which they had landed 
the preceding evening, and which Captain Sabine now selected as the most 
convenient place of observation ; and discovered just beyond it to the north- 
ward, a small harbour, having a bar at its entrance, upon which Mr. Fife, 
the Greenland master of the Griper, after whom the harbour was named, 
found ten feet water at nearly low tide. 
The latitude of the point is 74° 46' 56 ", and its longitude, by our chrono- 
meters, 110° 33' 59". The dip of the magnetic needle was found to be 
88° 29.91, and the variation 126° 17' 18" Easterly. It was low water by the 
I. 2 
