OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
185 
away in the afternoon, we struck the tents at five P.M., and having travelled 1820. 
three quarters of a mile, came to a ravine not less than a hundred feet deep, 
and in most parts nearly perpendicular. A place was at length found in which 
the cart could be got across, which we succeeded in effecting, through very 
deep snow, after an hour’s labour. On the north side of this ravine large 
masses of sand-stone were lying on the surface of the ground, over which the 
cart could with difficulty be dragged ; and we remarked on this, and several 
other occasions, that the stones which were bruised by the wheels emitted a 
strong smell, like that of fetid limestone when broken, though we could never 
discover any of that substance. In some of the sand-stone we found pieces 
of coal embedded ; and some large pieces of a slaty kind of that mineral, 
which burned indifferently, were also picked up in the ravine. 
We had hitherto, as we judged, rather ascended than otherwise since 
leaving the north-east-hill of Winter Harbour, and the height of this part 
of the island may be estimated at three or four hundred feet above the level 
of the sea. At two miles and a quarter to the northward of the ravine, we 
entered upon a snowy plain, of which we could not see the termination to the 
northward. Here and there only we came to a small patch of uncovered 
land, on one of which we observed the sand and sand-stone to be tinged of a 
light brick colour. We halted to dine before midnight, having made good, 
by our account, a distance of only five miles, and that with difficulty, the snow 
being soft, which made travelling very laborious. W e found here nothing but 
two small pools of dirty water, but, as it was of importance to save our wood in 
case of accidents, we went on an allowance of half a pint of this water each, 
rather than expend any of it in melting snow, a process requiring more fuel 
than perhaps those who have never made the experiment are aware of. There 
was no vegetation in this place, even the poppy having now forsaken us. 
At two o’clock on the morning of the 4th we continued our journey to the Sun. 4. 
northward, over the same snowy and level plain as before, than which it is 
impossible to conceive any thing more dreary and uninteresting. It frequently 
happened that, for an hour together, not a single spot of uncovered ground 
could be seen. The few patches of this kind forcibly reminded one of the 
description given of the oases in the deserts of Africa, not only because they 
relieved us for a time from the intense glare of the sun upon the snow, which 
was extremely oppressive to the eyes, but because it was on these alone that 
we could pitch our tents to rest, or that we could expect to meet with any 
water. The breeze freshened up to a gale from the S.S.E. as we proceeded, 
■2 B 
