OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
195 
remark which I afterwards found to occur in the Hecla’s Meteorological 
Journal at Winter Harbour on the following day. 
At a quarter past five P.M. we resumed our journey to the south-west, and 
soon after crossed a snowy plain a mile and a quarter in breadth, extending 
to the sea to the north, and as far as the eye could reach to the south. When 
we had travelled five miles, we began to ascend considerably, and were now 
entering upon the Blue Hills, the higher parts of which, however, were three 
or four leagues distant to the westward of us. Having travelled S.W. b. W. 
seven miles, we halted, at half-an-hour before midnight, at the distance of 
three or four miles from the sea, the weather being very clear and fine, with 
a moderate breeze from the S.S.W. During the last march we passed 
over much uneven ground, of which a great deal was extremely wet; 
moss, saxifrage, and short tufts of grass here became more abundant, and, 
interspersed among the former, some sorrel began to make its appear- 
ance. One or two pieces of red granite, and some of feldspar, were all that 
occurred in this way to repay the tedious search which we had for many days 
been making to discover any thing but sand-stone. 
Having rested, after our dinner, till half-past two A.M., we set out again Frid. 9. 
to the south-west, making, however, a very crooked course on account of the 
irregularity of the ground. Although this circumstance made the travelling 
somewhat more laborious, we were glad to be among the hills,* being heartily 
tired of the sameness which the snowy plains and low grounds present. In 
the first quarter of a mile, we passed the first running stream which we had 
seen this season, and this was but a small one, from six to twelve inches deep. 
The ground as well as the pools of water was frozen hard during the 
last night, but thawed during the day, which made travelling worse and 
worse as the sun acquired power. We passed a few deers’ horns, killed 
three ptarmigans, and saw a pair of ducks. The plumage of the cock-grouse 
was still quite white, except near the tip of the tail, where the feathers were 
of a fine glossy black ; but in every hen which we had lately killed, a very 
perceptible alteration was apparent, even from day to day, and their plumage 
had now nearly assumed that speckled colour which, from its resemblance to 
that of the ground, is so admirably adapted to preserve them from being seen 
at the season of their incubation. We found it difficult in general to get near 
the hens, which were very wild; but the male birds were at all times stupidly 
tame. Serjeant Martin, who was well acquainted with birds, reported having 
seen a pair of bank-swallows (Jlirundo RipariaJ, We halted at seven A.M., 
2 C 2 
1820. 
June. 
