OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
289 
fifty-seven to thirty-nine fathoms in the course of the night, in which depth 1820. 
we met with a number of icebergs aground. 
The wind being contrary on the 8th, we made very little progress to the 
southward. The soundings continuing as regular as before, we stood in- 
shore to eleven fathoms, and put the trawl overboard for an hour or two in 
the afternoon, bringing up a great quantity of sea-eggs {Echini), a few very 
small oysters, and some marine insects, but nothing that could furnish us 
with a fresh meal. The net was much broken by the roughness of the 
bottom, which consisted of very coarse sand and small stones ; we tried it 
again in the evening, but with no better success. The weather was at this 
time remarkably fine and pleasant, and it was impossible for us not to con- 
trast our present climate with that against which we had to contend about the 
same period the preceding year. 
In proceeding to the southward, on the 9th, we passed a headland wliich, >Sat. 9. 
like another I have before mentioned, has exactly the appearance of three 
islands, when seen from the northward ; a deception occasioned by three 
small hills near the point, situated upon comparatively low land. Having 
passed this headland, we discovered immediately to the southward of 
it a spacious bay or inlet, at least five or six leagues deep in the 
north-west part of it. The land at the bottom of this bay is high and 
mountainous, with every appearance of deep water near the shore ; but 
in proceeding along shore to the southward, it again becomes low next 
the sea, with hills at the back, and with the same safe and regular sound- 
ings as before. 
We hove-to at noon to observe the meridian altitude upon a floe of ice, 
the land being too near to obtain it by the natural horizon. The latitude 
was 69° 24' 37", and the longitude 67° 05' 43".6, being in thirty-five fathoms 
at five or six miles from the land. The water from the bottom was at the 
temperature of 31°, that of the surface being 32°|, and of the air 34°. The 
wind dying away soon after noon, gave us an opportunity of trying the 
current by a boat moored to the bottom in nineteen fathoms, when it was 
found to be running somewhat less than a mile an hour in a S. |E. direction. 
At forty minutes past four P.M., it was again tried in a similar manner, when 
it was setting to the S.E., at the rate of three-quarters of a mile per hour ; 
and, at seven o’clock, when we hove-to near Cape Kater, for the Griper to 
join us, we found it to be slack water. We stood off and on during the 
night, having from thirteen to twenty fathoms’ water, with the intention of 
2 P 
