OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
183 
Having set off soon after midnight, at the distance of half a mile in aN. b, E. 1820. 
direction, we came to a piece of frozen water half a mile in length, and two 
hundred yards wide, situated on the south side of the range of hills which 
bound the prospect from Winter Harbour. The ice, on the surface of this 
lake or pond, was in some parts nearly dissolved, and in all too soft to 
allow us to cross it. We here saw a pair of ducks, one of which being 
white and the other brown, we supposed them to be of that species called 
king ducks {Anas SpectaMlis). We soon after came in sight of an extensive 
level space to the north-westward, upon which not a single dark spot could 
be distinguished, even with a glass, to break the uniformity of the snow 
with which it was covered, till it appeared to terminate in a range of lofty 
hills which we had occasionally seen from the southward, and which, from 
the appearance given them by their distance, we had called the Blue Hills. 
We had, for some time past, entertained an idea, from their bold and 
precipitous appearance in some parts, that water would be found at the foot 
of them ; and had we not been certain that we had now ascended three or four 
hundred feet above the level of Winter Harbour, the appearance of the plain 
before us, which resembled a branch of the sea covered with ice, would have 
confirmed us in this idea. We halted at half-past six A.M,, and pitched the 
tents on the hardest ground we could find, but it became quite swampy in 
the course of the day. We killed seven ptarmigan, and saw two plovers 
(Charadrius Pluvialis), and two deer, being the first we had met with this season, 
with a fawn, so small, as to leave no doubt of its having been dropped since 
the arrival of the female upon the island. They were so wild as not to 
allow us to approach them within a quarter of a mile. The day was fine 
with light and variable airs ; the thermometer stood at 34°, in the shade, at 
seven A.M., at which time it was unfortunately broken. 
At five P.M., we struck the tents, and having detained one of Mr. Dealey’s 
party to accompany us, I despatched him to the ships with the others, and 
then continued our journey to the northward, having first made the ne- 
cessary observations for determining our position. These and the rest of 
our observations for latitude and longitude, obtained during this journey, 
were made with a sextant and artificial horizon, and the longitudes are by 
the chronometer. No. 2109 of Arnold, which I carried in my pocket. 
As we proceeded to the northward, the delusion respecting the level plain 
to the westward, began to wear off, some brown spots being here and there 
perceptible with a glass, which left no doubt of its being principally, if not 
