40 
VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 
1819. 
August. 
Sun. 8. 
ning close along the edge of the ice, which led us nearer and nearer to the 
eastern shore, so that by midnight the channel in which we were sailing was 
narrowed to about five miles. The colour of the water had changed to a very 
light green at that distance from the shore ; but we could find no bottom with 
fifty fathoms of line, and had thirty-five fathoms while rounding a point 
of ice at three miles’ distance from the beach. The weather was beautifully 
serene and clear, and the sun, for the second time to us this season, just 
dipped below the northern horizon, and then re-appeared in a few minutes. 
A dark sky to the south-west had given us hopes of finding a westerly 
passage to the south of the ice along which we were now sailing ; more espe- 
cially as the inlet began to widen considerably as we advanced in that di. 
rection : but at three A.M., on the morning of the 8th, we perceived that the 
ice ran close in with a point of land bearing S. b. E. from us, and which ap- 
peared to form the southern extremity of the eastern shore. To this extreme 
point I gave the name of Cape Kater, in compliment to Captain Henry Kater, 
one of the Commissioners of the Board of Longitude, to whom science is greatly 
indebted for his improvements of the pendulum, and the mariner’s compass. 
With the increasing width of the inlet, we had flattered ourselves with in- 
creasing hopes ; but we soon experienced the mortification of disappointment. 
The prospect from the crow’s nest began to assume a very unpromising ap- 
pearance, the whole of the western horizon, from north round to S. b. E., 
being completely covered with ice, consisting of heavy and extensive floes, 
beyond- which no indication of water was visible ; instead of which there was 
a bright and dazzling ice-blink extending from shore to shore. The western 
coast of the inlet, however, trended much more to the westward than before, 
and no land was visible to the south-west, though the horizon was so clear in 
that quarter, that, if any had existed of moderate height, it might have been 
easily seen at this time, at the distance of ten or twelve leagues. From these 
circumstances, the impression received at the time was, that the land, both on 
the eastern and western side of this inlet, would be one day found to consist 
of islands. As a fresh northerly breeze was drifting the ice rapidly towards 
Cape Kater, and there appeared to be no passage open between it and that 
cape, I did not consider it prudent, under present circumstances, to run the 
ships down to the point, or to attempt to force a passage through the ice, and 
therefore hauled to the wind with the intention of examining a bay which was 
abreast of us, and to which I gave the name of Fitzgerald Bay, out of respect 
for Captain Robert Lewis Fitzgerald, of the royal navy. 
