24 
VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 
1819. finding of whales; but we had no ice in sight to-day, when they were 
most numerous. At noon we observed, in lat. 74° 01' 57", being the first 
meridian altitude we had obtained for four days, and differing from the 
dead reckoning only two miles, which is remarkable, considering the slug- 
gishness of the compasses, and would seem to afford a presumptive proof 
that no southerly current exists in this part of Baffin’s Bay. The longitude, 
b y chronometers, was 75° 02' 14". In the afternoon the wind broke us 
off from the N. N. W., which obliged us to cast off the Griper, and we carried 
all sail a-head to make the land. We saw it at half-past five P. M., being the 
high land about Possession Bay, and at the same time several streams of loose 
but heavy ice came in sight, which a fresh breeze was drifting fast to the 
south-eastward. Sir James Lancaster’s Sound was now open to the westward 
of us, and the experience of our former voyage had given us reason to believe 
that the two best months in the year for the navigation of these seas were yet 
to come. This consideration, together with the magnificent view of the lofty 
Byam Martin mountains, which forcibly recalled to our minds the events of 
the preceding year, could not fail to animate us with expectation and hope. 
If any proof were wanting of the value of local knowledge in the navigation of 
the Polar Seas, it would be amply furnished by the fact of our having now 
reached the entrance of Sir James Lancaster’s Sound just one month earlier 
than we had done in 1818, although we had then sailed above a fortnight 
sooner, with the same general object in view, namely, to penetrate to the 
western coast of Baffin’s Bay, where alone the North-west Passage was to be 
sought for. This difference is to be attributed entirely to the confidence which I 
felt, from the experience gained on the former voyage, that an open sea would 
be found to the westward of the barrier of ice which occupies the middle of 
Baffin’s Bay. Without that confidence, it would have been little better than 
madness to have attempted a passage through so compact a body of ice, when 
no indication of a clear sea appeared beyond it. 
The Hecla’s cables were bent, and the Griper’s signal made to do the same. 
As we approached the land, the wind drew directly out of the sound, which is 
commonly found to be the case in inlets of this nature, in which the wind 
generally blows directly up or down. A flock of white ducks, believed to be 
male eider-ducks, were seen in the afternoon, flying to the eastward. 
Sat- 31. The wind increased to a fresh breeze on the morning of the 31st, which 
prevented our making much way to the westward. We stood in towards Cape 
Byam Martin, and sounded in eighty fathoms on a rocky bottom, at the distance 
