OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
211 
and especially in low and sheltered situations, was much covered with the hand- 1 820. 
some purple flower of the Saxifraga Oppositifolia, which was at this time 
in great perfection, and gave something like cheerfulness and animation 
to a scene hitherto indescribably dreary in its appearance. The poppy 
(Papaver Nudicaule) and some other plants, which will be described here- 
after, and most of which appeared in flower during the month of July, 
afforded us a degree of enjoyment that made us for awhile forget the rigour 
of this severe climate. 
The wind increased to a fresh gale from the north on the night of the 20th, Wed. 21. 
and continued to do so during the following day ; so that Captain Sabine 
had great difficulty in keeping his tents secure, and in spite of every exertion 
the canvass came in upon one of them, and put it out of its place. The 
ravines, which had no water in them a week before, were now discharging 
such deep and rapid torrents into the sea, as to render them quite impassable. 
The suddenness with which the changes take place during the short season, 
which may be called summer in this climate, must appear very striking when 
it is remembered that, for a part of the first week in June, we were under the 
necessity of thawing artificially the snow, which we made use of for water 
during the early part of our journey to the northward; that, during the second 
week, the ground was in most parts so wet and swampy that we could with 
difficulty travel ; and that, had we not returned before the end of the third 
week, we should probably have been prevented doing so for some time, by 
the impossibility of crossing the ravines without great danger of being carried 
away by the torrents, an accident that happened to our hunting parties on 
one or two occasions, in endeavouring to return with their game to the 
ships. Lieutenant Hoppner sent in another deer, being the largest of a 
herd of fifteen, notwithstanding which, it only furnished us with seventy- 
eight pounds of venison. Lieutenant Hoppner reported that the pools upon 
the upper surface of the ice to the south-west were rapidly increasing in size 
and number, but that no indication of its breaking up had yet appeared. 
On the 22d, at four P.M., a thermometer, in the shade on board the Hecla, 
stood at 51°, being the highest temperature we had yet registered this season. 
A swan was seen by Mr. Scallon on a pond to the S.W. ; this was, I 
believe, the only bird of the kind seen during our stay here, except a dead 
one which was picked up on our first arrival. 
On the 24th we had frequent showers of snow, which occur in this climate 
more or less at all times of the year ; at this season, however, when the 
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