OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
191 
At six P.M., the wind having gradually got round to the N.N.E., and the wea- 1820 . 
ther being more clear and cold, I set out, accompanied by Messrs. Nias and 
Reid, and a quarter-master of the Griper, with the intention of examining the 
situation and appearance of the sea to the northward ; leaving the rest of the 
party, several of whom were suffering from snow-blindness, though otherwise 
in good health, to remain quietly in the tents till our return. Having tra- 
velled N.N.W. a mile and a half through much deep snow, of which a good 
deal had fallen during the day, we came to some ice thrown up on the beach, 
having cracks in it parallel to the line of the shore, which we immediately 
recognised to be of the same kind as those to which we had so long been 
accustomed in Winter Harbour, and which are occasioned by the rise and fall 
of the tide. Such, however, was the sameness in the appearance of the sea 
and of the low shelving shore interposed for two or three miles between it 
and the hill we had descended in the morning, that, had it not been for the 
circumstance I have just mentioned, we should still have been in great doubt 
respecting the nature of the level space to the northward. The place where 
we came to the sea happened to be near the outlet of a ravine, and the upper 
surface of the ice was here covered with pools of fresh water, which had 
probably been formed by the streams from the ravine, and which at a little 
distance appeared, as usual, of a beautiful blue colour. We turned to the 
westward along the beach, and at the distance of two miles ascended a point 
of land in that direction, from whence we had a commanding view of the 
objects around us. As soon as we had gained the summit of this point, which 
is about eighty feet above the sea, and was named after Mr. Nias, we had an 
additional confirmation that it was the sea which we had now reached, the 
ice being thrown up on the beach under the point, and as far as we could 
see to the westward, in large high irregular masses, exactly similar to those 
which had so often afforded us anchorage and shelter upon the southern 
shores of the island. Being desirous, however, of leaving nothing uncertain 
respecting it, we walked out a few hundred yards upon the ice, and began 
with a boarding-pike and our knives, which were all the tools we had, to 
dig a hole in it, in order to taste the water beneath. After nearly two 
hours’ labour, however, we could only get down as many feet, the ice being 
very hard, brittle, and transparent ; more so, as we imagined, than salt- 
water ice usually is, which made us the more desirous to get through it. I, 
therefore, determined to return to our people, and to remove our encamp- 
ment to Point Nias, for the purpose of completing the hole through the ice 
