350 
VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 
1820. shortly afterwards, however, relieved from any further apprehension on this 
account, by the ice gradually receding from the shore, in consequence of a 
westerly breeze springing up, and allowing the Griper to warp up near 
the Hecla, where, though she was by no means so safe as that ship, she 
was at least placed in a situation, with which the extraordinary nature of 
our late navigation taught us to be satisfied. 
Mr. Fisher found very good sport in our new station, having returned in 
the evening, after a few hours’ excursion, with nine hares ; the birds had, of 
late, almost entirely deserted us, a flock or two of ptarmigan and snow- 
buntings, a few glaucous gulls, a raven, and an owl, being all that had been 
Wed. 16. met with for several days. 
A fog which had prevailed during the night, cleared away in the morning of 
the 16th, and a very fine day succeeded, with a moderate breeze from the 
westward. In order to have a clear and distinct view of the state of the ice, 
after twenty-four hours’ wind from that quarter, Captain Sabine, Mr. Edwards, 
and myself, walked about two miles to the westward, along the high part of 
the land next the sea, from whence it appeared but too evident that no 
passage in this direction was yet to be expected. The only clear water 
in sight was a channel of about three-quarters of a mile wide in some places, 
between the ice and the land, extending as far as a bold headland, bearing 
N. 52 Q W., distant two miles and a quarter, which formed the western ex- 
treme in sight, and was called Cape Dundas, as appropriate to the name 
which the island had received. The ice to the west and south-west was as 
solid and compact, to all appearance, as so much land; to which, indeed, 
the surface of many of the fields, from the kind of hill and dale I have 
before endeavoured to describe, bore no imperfect resemblance. I have 
no doubt that, had it been our object to circumnavigate Melville Island, 
or, on the other hand, had the coast continued its westerly direction 
instead of turning to the northward, we should still have contrived to pro- 
ceed a little occasionally, as opportunities offered, notwithstanding the 
increased obstruction which here presented itself ; but as neither of these 
was the case, there seemed little or nothing to hope for from any 
further attempts to prosecute the main object of the voyage in this place. 
I determined, therefore, no longer to delay the execution of my former inten- 
tions, and to make trial, if possible, of a more southern latitude, in which I 
might follow up the success that had hitherto attended our exertions. 
The place to which we had now walked, was the eastern bank of the 
