VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY. 
67 
near the ships. Anxious to take advantage of these favourable circumstances, 1819. 
I directed all sail to be made to the westward : there was no difficulty in com- 
plying with the first part of this order, but to ascertain which way the wind 
was blowing, and to which quarter of the horizon the ship’s head was to be 
directed, was a matter of no such easy accomplishment ; nor could we devise 
any means of determining this question till five o’clock, when we obtained a 
sight of the sun through the fog, and were thus enabled to shape our course, 
the wind being moderate from the northward. 
In standing to the southward, we had gradually deepened the water to one 
hundred and five fathoms, and our soundings now as gradually decreased as 
we stood to the westward ; giving us reason to believe, as on the preceding 
night, and from the experience we had acquired of the navigation among 
these islands, that we were approaching land in that direction. In this sup- 
position we were not deceived, for, at half-past eight, the fog having sud- 
denly cleared up, we found ourselves within four or five miles of a low point 
of land which was named after Mr. Griffiths, and which, being at the 
distance of six or seven leagues from Byam Martin Island, we considered to 
be part of another of the same group. We sailed along the shore at the 
distance of two to four miles in a S.W.b.W. direction, and having dropped a 
boat to obtain observations upon the ice, without lieaving-to for that purpose, 
we found ourselves to be, at noon, in latitude 74° 59' 35", and longitude, 
by chronometers, 106° 07' 36". This land very much resembled, in height 
and general character, the other islands which we had lately passed, being in 
most parts of a brownish colour, among which we also imagined a little green 
to be here and there discernible. We had some small rain in the afternoon, 
which was succeeded by snow towards midnight. 
At one A.M. on the 2d, a star was seen, being the first that had been Thurs. 2. 
visible to us for more than two months. The fog came on again this morning, 
which, together with the lightness of the wind preventing the ships getting 
sufficient way to keep them under command, occasioned them some of the 
heaviest blows which they had yet received during the voyage, although the 
ice was generally so loose and broken as to have allowed an easy passage 
with a moderate and leading wind. As none of the pieces near us were large 
enough for securing the ships in the usual manner, we could only heave-to, 
to windward of one of the heaviest masses, and allow the ship to drive with 
it till some favourable change should take place. After lying for an hour in 
this inactive and helpless situation, we again made sail, the weather being 
