200 
VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 
1820. to the southward. Having walked five miles in a S.S.W. direction, we landed 
at seven A.M., near the south-east part of the island, which I named after 
my friend Mr. Hooper. We had now little doubt that we had been tra- 
velling over a gulf of the sea, as we had not seen any land enclosing it to the 
westward, for more than two points of the compass, the weather being 
very clear ; but, as nothing could make this absolutely certain but tasting 
the salt-water, I had just signified my intention of occupying the rest of the 
day in digging a hole through the ice for this purpose, when one of the party 
having gone to a pool on the floe for some water to drink, found it to be 
quite salt, and thus saved us any further trouble or doubt respecting it. 
The wind was fresh from the westward, and the tents were pitched near the 
beach, under the lee of the high part of the island. Captain Sabine and 
myself, having ascended to the top, which is on the east side from five to six, 
and on the west, about seven hundred feet above the sea, and in many 
parts nearly perpendicular, we had a commanding view of this fine 
gulf, which I named after my much-esteemed friend and brother-officer. 
Lieutenant Liddon. The entrance of the gulf to the westward was now 
very apparent, the head-lands which appeared to terminate its north and 
south shores, being distant from us from five to seven leagues. I named 
them after Lieutenants Beechey and Hoppner, and their astronomical bear- 
ings were S. 86° W., and S. 65° W. respectively. 
The north shore of Liddon’s Gulf, being the termination of the Blue Hills 
to the south-west, is high, bold and precipitous as far to the eastward as 
Bushnan Cove, and its formation appeared, with a glass, to be the same as in 
that neighbourhood; beyond this, to the eastward, the land becomes low, 
and the gulf takes a bend to the north-east. In this direction we could not 
distinguish its extent, but we must have passed at no great distance from the 
head of it on the 4th. A bluff cape on this shore, which is seen very 
conspicuously on a clear day from the Table-hill of Winter Harbour, was 
named after Mr. Edwards, who had been the first among us to conjecture 
from its appearance, that water would be found at its foot. Immediately to 
the westward of Cape Edwards the land recedes, forming a bay, called 
Barry’s Bay, of which our situation and distance did not allow us to 
see the extent. We found that the nearest land to us on the opposite 
shore was not on the south coast of the gulf, as we had supposed, but 
a point to the E.S E., for which it was, therefore, proposed that we 
should next cross the ice ; the south shore is all high and steep, but 
