220 
VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 
1820. destined to be detained thus inactively for a part of each month in the 
whole year, as we had reached it in the latter part of September, and were 
likely to be prevented leaving it till after the commencement of August. 
Sun. 16. On the 16th of July the streams of water in the ravines were once more 
passable with great ease, and the snow had entirely disappeared, ex- 
cept on the sides of those ravines, and in other hollows where it had 
formed considerable drifts ; so that the appearance of the land was much the 
same now as when we first made the islands in the latter part of August 
the preceding year. The walks which our people were enabled to take at 
this period, when the weather was really mild and pleasant, and to our 
feelings quite as warm as the summer of any other climate, together with 
the luxurious living afforded by our hunting parties, and by the abundant 
supply of sorrel which was always at command, were the means of completely 
eradicating any seeds of scurvy which might have been lurking in the consti- 
tutions of the officers and men, who were now, I believe, in as good health, 
and certainly in as good spirits, as when the Expedition left England. Gra- 
tifying as this fact could not but be to me, it was impossible to contemplate 
without pain the probability, now too evident, that the shortness of the 
approaching season of operations would not admit of that degree of success in 
the prosecution of the main object of our enterprise, which might otherwise 
have been reasonably anticipated in setting out from our present advanced 
station with two ships in such perfect condition, and with crews so zealous in 
the cause in which we were engaged. 
Mon. 17 . From six A.M. till six P.M. on the 17th, the thermometer stood generally 
from 55° to 60°; the latter temperature being the highest which appears in the 
Hecla’s Meteorological Journal during this summer. It will readily be con- 
ceived how pleasant such a temperature must have been to our feelings after the 
severe winter which immediately preceded it. The month of July is, indeed, the 
only one which can be called at all comfortable in the climate of Melville Island. 
Tues. 18. On the 18th I rowed round the harbour in a boat, in order to take the 
soundings as far as the ice would permit ; when it was worthy of remark how 
exactly the extent of the clear water between the ice and the shore corre- 
sponded with its depth, it being nearly a quarter of a mile wide on the 
north-eastern side of the harbour; where the deepest water 'was from eight to 
ten feet; while on the western side, where we found two fathoms, the passage 
for the boat did not exceed forty or fifty yards in width. This channel was 
almost daily becoming wider, especially after a strong breeze from any 
