208 
VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 
1820. On the 4tth, Lieutenant Liddon caused His Majesty’s birth-day to be 
commemorated in the best manner that the situation of the ships would 
Sun. 4. permit, by hoisting the ensigns and pendants, and directing full allowance 
of provisions to be served to the crews. It is remarkable that, at Winter 
Harbour, the weather was fine, and the wind moderate from the S.S.W., 
during the d'th, while, at a few leagues’ distance to the northward, we 
Mon. 5. experienced a hard gale from the southward, with continued snow and a 
heavy drift. On the 5th, the officers remarked a more perceptible thaw 
than before, both on shore and on the ice, many pools of water having appeared 
in new places on the latter, and the snow disappearing fast from the land, 
though no streams of water were yet seen in the neighbourhood of Winter 
Harbour. Flocks of ducks and geese were from this time seen almost daily 
for the next six weeks, except immediately about the ships, from which the 
game of every kind was scared soon after their arrival from the southward. 
Wed. 7. On the 7th, Lieutenant Liddon walked over the ice to the entrance of the 
harbour, where there was not even so much alteration perceptible as about 
the ships ; indeed, every thing remained exactly the same, to all appearance, 
as in the middle of winter. At five P.M., the weather being hazy, and a 
light shower of snow falling, a strongly prismatic rainbow appeared, a 
phenomenon of rare occurrence in these regions ; it had, I believe, nothing 
Frid. 9. about it different from those observed in other climates. On the 9th, the 
first seal was seen, lying upon the ice, near the mouth of the harbour, and 
having a hole close to him, as usual ; as we never saw more than one of these 
animals here at a time, and that very rarely, it was common for us, when- 
ever this did occur, to remark that the seal had been seen, and the same 
mode of expression was as naturally and more justly applied to the bear seen 
in the autumn soon after our arrival here. So few, indeed, are the animals 
in this neighbourhood, which either live in the sea, or derive their subsist- 
ence from it, that it is scarcely possible that the Esquimaux, who depend 
chiefly, if not entirely, upon them for provision, could long exist on the 
shores of Melville Island. About this time several mosquitoes {Culex Pipiens) 
were caught, but they were never of the least annoyance to us, as is the 
case on the shores of Hudson’s Bay, and in other cold countries ; nor, 
indeed, did I hear of any of our people having once been bit by them. 
The buds of the Saxifraga Oppositifolia, and of the dwarf-willow, were 
observed to be opening out on the 9th, and some of the sorrel to be in 
flower ; a plant with a flower of a lilac colour, having a very sweet smell, 
