OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
201 
much less so than the north ; its nearest part was seven or eight miles 
distant. 
Hooper’s Island is principally composed of the same stratified sand-stone as 
the adjacent shores ; on the top of the island, however, we also found a great 
deal of clay iron-stone, varying in colour from fine chocolate to dark blue, 
some of which was remarkably compact and heavy ; and several lumps of 
calcareous spar, or crystallized carbonate of lime, were picked up on the 
beach. We met with little or no vegetation, a few stunted tufts of moss 
being, I believe, all that occurred in that way. There were a great many 
brent-geese on the beach, of which four were killed, weighing about four 
pounds each when shot, and two pounds when ready for dressing. We saw 
also several grouse, a great many snow-buntings, whose lively note still 
saluted us wherever we went, a raven, and an ivory gull. The latitude, ob- 
served at the tents, was 75° 05' 18", the longitude, by chronometer 111 0 56' 58", 
and the variation of the magnetic needle 123° 47" 58" easterly. 
We rested till six P.M., and then set oft' across the ice for the point. The 
snow had now become so soft after the heat of the day, that, loaded as we 
were, we often sunk nearly up to the knees, which made travelling very 
laborious, and we were, therefore, not sorry to get on shore by half-past eight, 
having walked, by our account, three miles and a half. On landing we saw 
two deer, but they were too shy to allow our sportsmen to come near them. 
We directed our course to the south-east, along a narrow ridge of land inter- 
posed between the sea and a lagoon, which now made its appearance at the 
back, and which is about three-quarters of a mile long in a north-east direction, 
and a quarter of a mile wide. It communicates with the gulf by a narrow 
opening, only forty or fifty yards across, which, as well as the lagoon, was 
still completely frozen over. In this neighbourhood we picked up the root 
and three feet of the trunk of a small pine-tree, about fifteen feet above the 
present level of the sea. We passed also a part of the skeleton of a musk-ox, 
frozen hard into the ground. The soil here became very rich, and abounded 
with the finest moss, together with a great deal of grass, saxifrage and poppy ; 
and the quantity of dung which covered the ground shewed it to be a feeding- 
place for the deer, musk-oxen, and hares: the tracts of the former were 
numerous and recent. We halted at half-past eleven, Hooper’s Island being 
distant from us five miles and a half in a W. b. N. direction. The night was 
remarkably clear and fine, with a light wind from the westward. 
The spot on which we encamped appeared so favourable for obtaining 
2 D 
1820 . 
June. 
