366 
APPENDIX NO. V. 
occasional ridges of hummocks, generally running in parallel lines. I 
was obliged frequently to run off to the westward, as no other passage 
could be seen, and was thus prevented making as much easting as your 
orders required. A meridian-altitude gave me lat. 79° 8' 6". From 
this point I obtained excellent sights of the S.E. coast of the channel, 
and took solar bearings of the several capes. During the afternoon 
our track was more rough and tortuous, sometimes running to the W. 
and again to the E. of N. By rude estimate we made fifty miles, and 
at 5.10 p.M. were brought to a halt by a wall of broken ice rang¬ 
ing from five to thirty feet in height above the general level of the 
floe, and running in a direction N.E. by E. From this point the north 
headland of Rensselaer Bay bore S. 4° IV. (true.) 
May 22.—This morning we set out at six o’clock, and on ascending 
the highest neighboring pinnacle I found this lidc of hummocks to 
extend as far as the eye could reach N.E. by E. and S.W. by W., no 
termination or break appearing in its surface to the N. and W. 
This prospect cast a sudden damper on the hope I had yesterday 
entertained of a speedy passage to the shore. The land was distinctly 
visible, and appeared not more than twenty or twenty-five miles distant. 
I supposed the ridge of broken ice to be the same which had baffled 
Messrs. Bonsall and McGary last fall; and as I did not see that any 
thing could bo gained by pushing along this barricade, which appeared 
to run parallel with the coast, I determined to enter it at the first break, 
and reach the land which loomed high through the disappearing fog. 
After travelling along the borders of this fonnidablc barrier about 
three miles, I succeeded in effecting an entrance, and at the end of a 
day’s journey of twenty or twenty-five miles I found, to my disappoint¬ 
ment, that instead of encamping, as I had hoped, under the high cliffs 
of the shore, we were forced to build our snow-house in the midst of 
this wilderness of broken ice. 
Our linear distance from our last encampment was not more than 
ten miles, as our track was very tortuous; and, moreover, we had not a 
foot of level travelling. Huge masses of ice from twenty to forty feet 
in height were heaped together, around which the fierce winds of win¬ 
ter had piled the drifting snow. In crossing these ridges our sledge 
would frequently capsize, and roll over and over, dogs, cargo, and all, 
into the drift below. Sometimes the sledge would be half buried in 
the hard snow into which it had fallen, in which case its liberation 
would be attended with difficulty. 
The dogs were continually breaking their harness or lines, and, owing 
to the character of the road, this day’s travel tired them more than 
