OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
55 
Inlet obtained, by Lieutenant Hoppner’s desire, the name of Cape Gifford, 1819 . 
out of respect to his friend, Mr. Gifford, a gentleman well known and highly 
respected, as he deserves to be, in the literary world. To the eastward of 
Cape Gifford, a thick haze covered the horizon, and it prevented us from 
seeing more land in that direction ; so that its continuity from hence to Cape 
Clarence still remained undetermined, while, to the westward, it seemed to 
be terminated rather abruptly by a headland, which I distinguished by the 
name of Cape Bunny. 
At noon, we had reached the longitude of 94° 43' 15", the latitude, by 
observation, being 74° 20' 52", when we found that the land which then 
formed the western extreme on this side was a second island, which, 
after Rear-Admiral Edward Griffith, I called Griffith Island. Imme- 
diately opposite to this, upon Cornwallis Island, is a conspicuous headland, 
which, at some distance, has the appearance of being detached, but which, 
on a nearer approach, was found to be joined by a piece of low land. To 
this I gave the name of Cape Martyr, after a much esteemed friend. At 
two P.M., having reached the longitude of 95° 07', we came to some heavy 
and extensive floes of ice, which obliged us to tack, there being no passage 
between them. We beat to the northward during the whole of the after- 
noon, with a fresh breeze from that quarter, in the hope of finding a 
narrow channel under the lee of Griffith Island. In this expectation we 
were, however, disappointed, for, at eight P.M., we were near enough to 
perceive not only that the ice was quite close to the shore, but that it 
appeared not to have been detached from it at all during this season. We, 
therefore, bore up, and ran again to the southward, where the sea by this 
time had become rather more clear along the lee margin of a large field of 
ice extending far to the westward. The ice in this neighbourhood was 
covered with innumerable “ hummocks,” such as I have before endea- 
voured to describe as occurring in the southern part of Prince Regent’s 
Inlet, and the floes were from seven to ten feet in thickness. It may here 
be remarked, as a fact not altogether unworthy of notice, that, from the 
time of our entering Sir James Lancaster’s Sound, till we had passed the 
meridian of 92°, near which the northern shore of Barrow’s Strait ceases to 
be continuous, the wind, as is commonly the case in inlets of this kind, 
had invariably blown in a direction nearly due east or due west, being that 
of the shores of the strait. When, therefore, we experienced to-day, for 
the first time, a fresh breeze blowing steadily from the northward, or 
