OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
273 
could be no current of any importance setting in that direction on this part 
of the coast. The soundings were eighty-eight fathoms on a muddy bottom ; 
the temperature of the sea at that depth was 33°, at the surface 35°|, that of 
the atmosphere being 38°, 
We landed on a bold sandy beach, two or three miles to the northward of 
a low point, at the entrance of the inlet, towards which we walked, and 
ascended a hill at the back of the point, in order to obtain a view of this 
large opening. We now found that the perpendicular cliff formed the 
north-eastern point of a remarkably steep and precipitous island, on each 
side of which there is a wide and • bold entrance. Above the island, 
the inlet branches off in at least two different directions, which our situation 
would not allow us to trace to any great distance, but we saw no termina- 
tion to either of them. 
The mineral productions . were found to consist principally of granite and 
gneiss ; but there was also abundance of limestone and quartz, the latter beau- 
tifully white, which, together with the other specimens obtained here, will 
be described in the proper place in the Appendix. The vegetation was 
tolerably luxuriant in some places upon the low land which borders the sea, 
consisting principally of the dwarf-willow, sorrel, saxifrage, (Saxifraga Cernud), 
and poppy, with a few roots of scurvy-grass. There was still a great deal of 
snow remaining even on the lower parts of the land, on which were 
numerous ponds of water; on one of these, a pair of young red-throated 
divers which could not rise, were killed ; and two flocks of geese, one of 
them consisting of not less than sixty or seventy, were seen by Mr. Hooper, 
who described them as being very tame, running along the beach before our 
people, without rising, for a considerable distance. Some glaucous gulls 
and plovers were killed, and we met with several tracks of bears, deer, 
wolves, foxes, and mice. The coxswain of the boat found upon the beach 
part of the bone of a whale, which had been cut at one end by a sharp 
instrument, like an axe, with a quantity of chips lying about it, affording 
undoubted proof of this part of the coast having been visited at no distant 
period by Esquimaux; it is more than probable, indeed, that they may inhabit 
the shores of this inlet, which time would not now permit us to examine. 
More than sixty ice-bergs of very large dimensions were in sight from the 
top of the hill, together with a number of extensive" floes to the north- 
east and south-east, at the distance of four or five leagues from the land. 
The latitude of the place of observation on shore was 71° 15' 34", its 
1820 . 
Sept. 
