OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
85 
had been as low as 9°, and rose gradually to 17°, at midnight. The sudden j^l9. 
and unexpected decrease in the general temperature of the atmosphere about 
this period was a very striking one ; and from this time, as will appear by 
the Meteorological Register, the commencement of winter may fairly 
be dated. 
Our flag-staves we brought on board early in the morning of the 15th, Wed. 15. 
and at ten A.M., the wind being somewhat more moderate, the stream-cable 
was cast off from the shore, in readiness for making sail ; but the wind 
freshened up once more to a strong gale, which rendered it necessary still to 
hold on by our hawsers. In the evening the stream-cable was taken on shore 
again, and we landed to make observations for the variation of the needle, 
which was found to be 1 17° 52' 22" easterly. 
It was observed, for the first time, that a strong current was setting to the Thur. 16. 
westward during the whole of the last night, directly against a fresh gate from 
that quarter. At nine A.M., the wind being much more moderate, as well 
as more off the land, and the weather fine and clear, we cast off, and 
made all sail to the westward, running along the land at the distance of 
two or three miles from it. At a quarter before noon, we were abreast 
of Cape Providence, beyond which, at the distance of three or four leagues, 
another headland, still more high and bold in its appearance, was dis- 
covered, and named after Mr. Hay, Private Secretary to the First Lord of the 
Admiralty. At the place which we left in the morning, the ice had been 
driven from the shore to the distance of six or seven miles ; but we found, as 
we proceeded, that the channel became gradually more and more contracted, 
till at length the ice was observed to extend, in a solid and impenetrable 
body, completely in to the very shore, a little to the eastward of Cape Hay. 
Our latitude, by account at noon, was 74° 23' 25", longitude 112° 29' 30". 
The wind again freshened to a strong gale in the afternoon, reducing us to our 
close-reefed topsails, which were as much as the ship would bear, the squalls 
blowing out of the ravines with extreme violence. It became necessary, 
therefore, to look out for a secure situation for the ships during the ensuing • 
night, which threatened to be a tempestuous one ; but no such situation pre- 
sented itself in this neighbourhood ; the whole of the coast to the westward 
of Cape Providence being so steep, that the heaviest ice can find no ground 
to rest upon. I was therefore reduced to the disagreeable necessity of run- 
ning back to the lower shore three miles and a half to the eastward of Cape 
Providence, where alone the ships could, under present circumstances, be 
