68 
VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 
1819. rather more clear, which discovered to us that the main body of the ice was 
about three miles distant from the land, the intermediate space being very 
thickly covered with loose pieces through which our passage w T as to be 
sought. As we stood in for the land in the forenoon, we decreased our 
soundings uniformly from twenty-seven to eleven fathoms at one and a half or 
two miles from the beach, and a boat, which I sent to sound in-shore, found 
the water to shoal very regularly to six fathoms at about half a mile. At 
this distance from the beach, there were many large masses of ice aground ; 
and it was here that the method so often resorted to in the subsequent part 
of the voyage, of placing the ships between these masses and the land, in 
case of the ice closing suddenly upon us, first suggested itself to our minds. 
As we were making no way to the westward, I directed two boats to be pre- 
pared from each ship for the purpose of making the usual observations on 
shore, as well as to endeavour to kill deer; and, at one P.M., I left the ship, 
accompanied by a large party of officers and men, and was soon after joined 
by the Griper’s boats. We landed on a very flat sandy beach, which did not 
allow the boats to come nearer than their own length, and we were imme- 
diately struck with the general resemblance in the character of this island to 
that of Byam Martin Island, which we had lately visited. The basis of this 
land is sandstone, but we met with limestone also, occurring in loose pieces on 
the surface, and several lumps of coal were brought in by the parties who had 
traversed the island in different directions. Our sportsmen were by no means 
successful, having seen only two deer, which were too wild to allow them to 
get near them. The dung of these animals, however, as well as that of the 
musk-ox was very abundant, especially in those places where the moss was 
most luxuriant ; every here and there we came to a spot of this kind, 
consisting of one or two acres of ground covered with a rich vegetation, and 
which was evidently the feeding-place of those animals, there being quantities 
of their hair and wool lying scattered about. Several heads of the musk- 
ox were picked up, and one of the Hecla’s seamen brought to the boat a 
narwhal’s horn which he found on a hill more than a mile from the 
sea, and which must have been carried thither by Esquimaux or by bears : 
three or four brace of ptarmigan ( Tetrao Lagopus,J were killed, and these 
were the only supply of this kind which we obtained. Serjeant Martin 
of the artillery, and Captain Sabine’s servant, brought down to the beach 
several pieces of a large fir-tree, which they found nearly buried in the sand, 
at the distance of three or four hundred yards from the present high-water 
