IGtbrarg ImuprBxtg of J^ttlaburglji iCibrarg Untwrfittg of JPtttaburglj Darlington Memorial Library CfHaBH.C^...fcs;.....52....?>. „ IBook A.&.\^ ta IiMisliedas C/ie act directs j JOURNAL f OF A VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE FROM THE ATLANTIC TO THE PACIFIC; PERFORMED IN THE YEARS 1819—20, IN HIS MAJESTY'S SHIPS HECLA AND GRIPER, UNDER THE ORDERS OF SVC WILLIAM EDWARD PARRY, R.N., F.R.S., AND COMMANDER OF THE EXPEDITION. WITH AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING THE SCIENTIFIC AND OTHER OBSERVATIONS. PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY OF THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS OF THE ADMIRALTY. LONDON JOHN MURRAY, PUBLISHER TO THE ADMIRALTY, AND BOARD OF LONGITUDE MDCCCXXI. JOURNAL ? OF A VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE FROM THE ATLANTIC TO THE PACIFIC: PERFORMED IN THE YEARS 1819—20, IN HIS MAJESTY'S SHIPS S HECLA AND GRIPER, UNDER THE ORDERS OF S^f WILLIAM EDWARD PARRY, R.N., F.R.S. AyO COMMANDER OF THE EXPEDITION. WITH AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING THE SCIENTIFIC AND OTHER OBSERVATIONS. PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY OF THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS OF THE ADMIRALTY. LONDON JOHN MURRAY, PUBLISHER TO THE ADMIRALTY, AND BOARD OF LONGITUDE MDCCCXXI. 3' ^\^ \^> ^373 LONDON : PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES, Xorthuuiberland-court. To THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORD VISCOUNT MELVILLE, '""hIg'h ADMrr'n';'""*^^ ™" KXECUTING THE OFFICE OP LORD HIGH ADMIRAL OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 4c. .tc 4c THIS VOLUME, CONTAINING THE JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE FROM THE ATLANTIC TO THE PACIFIC, UNDERTAKEN AND EXECUTED UNDER THE AUSPICES OP HIS LORDSHIP. IS INSCRIBED, WITH DUE RESPECT AND GRATITUDE, BY HIS OBLIGED AND FAITHFUL SERVANT. WILLIAM EDWARD PARRY. London, May, 1821. CONTENTS. Introduction Official Instructions CHAPTER I. Passage across the Atlantic — Enter Davis* Strait — Unsuccessful attempt to penetrate the ice to the Western Coast — Voyage up the Strait — Passage through the Ice to the Western Coast — Arrival off Possession Bay, on the Southern side of the entrance into Sir James Lancaster's Sound ......... 1 CHAPTER II. Entrance into Sir James Lancaster's Sound of Baffin— Uninterrupted Passage to the Westward —Discovery and Examination of Prince Regent's Inlet — Progress to the Southward stopped by Ice — Return to the Northward — Pass Barrow's Strait — and enter the Polar Sea ........... 29 CHAPTER III. Favourable appearances of an Open Westerly Passage — Land to the Northward, a Series ol Islands — General Appearance of them — Meet with some obstruction from low Islands sur- rounded with Ice — Remains of Esquimaux Huts, and Natural Productions of Byam Martin Island — Tedious Navigation from Fogs and Ice — Difficulty of Steering a Proper Course — Arrival and Landing on Melville Island — Proceed to the Westward, and reach the Meridian of 110° W. Longitude, the First Stage in the Scale of Rewards granted by Act of Parliament . . . . . , . . .53 CHAPTER IV. Further Examination of Melville Island — Continuation of our Progress to the Westward — Long Detention by the Ice— Party sent on Shore to hunt Deer and Musk-Oxen— Return in Three Days, after losing their way — Anxiety on their account-^Proceed to the Westward, till finally stopped by the Ice — In returning to the Eastward the Griper forced on the beach by the Ice — Search for, and discovery of, a Winter Harbour on Melville Island — Operations for securing the Ships in their Winter Quarters . . . .75 CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. PAGE Precautions for securing the Ships and Stores — for promoting Good Order, Cleanliness, Health, and Good-humour, among the Ships' Companies — Establishment of a Theatre, and of the North Georgia Gazette — Erection of an Observatory on Shore — Commence our Winter's Amusements — State of the Temperature and various Meteorological Phenomena — Miscellaneous Occurrences to the close of the Year 1819 .... 101 CHAPTER VI. First Appearance of Scurvy — The Aurora Borealis and other Meteorological Phenomena — Visits of the Wolves — Re-appearance of the Sun — Extreme low Temperature — Destruc- tion of the House on Shore by Fire — Severe Frost-bites occasioned by this Accident . 131 CHAPTER Vn. More temperate Weather — House re-built — Quantity of Ice collected on the Hecla's lower Deck — Meteorological Phenomena — Conclusion of Theatrical Entertainments — Increased Sickness on board the Griper — Clothes first dried in the open Air — Remarkable Halos and Parhelia — Snow-Blindness — Cutting the Ice round the Ships, and other Occurrences to the Close of May . . . . . . . . .151 CHAPTER Vni. Journey across Melville Island to the Northern Shore, and Return to the Ships by a different Route . . . . . . . . . . .181 CHAPTER IX. Occurrences at Winter Harbour in the early Part of Jhine^Gradual Dissolution of the Ice upon the Sea, and of the Snow upon the Land — Hunting Parties sent out to procure Game — Decease and Burial of William Scott — Equipment of the Ships completed — Temperate Weather during the Month of July — Breaking up of the Ice near the Ships — Move to the lower Part of the Harbour — Separation of the Ice at the Entrance — Prepare to sail — Abstract of Observations made in Winter Harbour . . . . . 206 CHAPTER X. Leave Winter Harbour — Flattering appearance of the Sea to the Westward — Stopped by the Ice near Cape Hay — Further Progress to the Longitude of 113° 48' 22". 5, being the Westernmost Meridian hitherto reached in the Polar Sea, to the North of America — Banks's Land Discovered — Increased extent and dimensions of the Ice — Return to the East- ward, to endeavour to penetrate the Ice to the Southward — Discovery of several Islands — Re-enter Barrow's Strait, and survey its South Coast — Pass through Sir James Lan- caster's Sound, on our Return to England ...... 228 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XL PAGE Progress down the Western Coast of Baffin's Bay — Meet with tlie Whalers — Account of some Esquimaux in the Inlet called the River Clyde — Continue the survey of the Coast, till stopped by Ice in the Latitude of 68|° — Obliged to run to the Eastward — Fruitless attempts to regain the land, and final Departure from the Ice — Remarks upon the pro- bable existence and practicability of a Nopth-West Passage, and upon the Whale- Fishery — Boisterous Weather in crossing the Atlantic — Loss of the Hecla's Bowsprit and Foremast — Arrival in England. . . , . , . . .271 APPENDIX. I. An Account of the going of the Chronometers of the Hecla and Griper II. Lunar Observations ........ III. Observations to determine the Latitude and the Longitude by Chronometers IV. Abstract of Observations on the Dip of the Horizon at Sea, with Doctor Woliaston Dip Sector, in 1819 and 1820 ...... V. Magnetic Observations . . . V'l. Table of Days' Works kept on board the Hecla VII. Tide Table in Winter Harbour, Melville Island . .... VIII. An Account of Experiments to determine the Acceleration of the Pendulum in dif ferent Latitudes ........ IX. Remarks on the State of Health and Disease on board the Hecla and Griper XXI Ixi cxliii civ clxi clxvii LIST OP THE PLATES. A I- II. III. , IV. V. , VI. VII. VIII. ._ IX. X. XI. . XII. , XIII. , XIV. i-xv. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XX. General Polar Chart, shewing the Track, S^c. — to face Situation of H. M. Ships Hecla and Griper, July 4th, 1819 Iceberg in Baffin's Bay, July, 1819 . Chart of the Discoveries, 4"c. ^c. Headlands, ^c, commencing with Cape Bathurst Ditto Cape Warrender Burnet Inlet •■.... Headlands, ^c, commencing with Hobhouse Inlet I^'tto Prince Leopold's Islands Chart of Port Bowen ..... Headlands, Sfc, commencing with Cape Cockburn Situation of the Hecla and Griper, September 20th, 1819 Cutting into Winter Harbour Hecla and Griper in Winter Harbour Chart of Winter Harbour .... Situation of the Hecla and Griper, 17th to 23d of August, 1820 Mnsk-Ox ....._ Chart of a Part of the Western Coast of Baffin's Bay Esquimaux of the Inlet called the River Clyde Chart of the River Clyde .... Title Page. . II . 17 . 29 . 31 . 32 . 34 . 35 . 36 . 44 . 58 . 92 . 97 . 122 . 226 . 254 . 257 . 271 . 282 . 288 The following; Errata occur in the Noon Longitudes in the Nar- native, in consequence of having inadvertently inserted those by Chronometer No. 2i8, instead of those by the mean of the whole number' employed. Page 4, line ^*feaving been suggested to me that both these purposes would be best answered by throwing into an Appendix the whole of the matter which relates exclusively to geography, natural history, and the details of scientific observations, this method has been adopted ; except in a few cases, in which it was considered expedient, for elucidating the subject under consideration, to introduce a brief notice of them into the body of the work, without occasioning any material interruption in the Narrative. The following account of the proceedings of the Expedition is taken principally from the official Journal kept by myself on board the Hecla, and always written within twenty-four hours after the occur- rence of the events recorded in it. In several instances, however, I have been happy to avail myself of the journals or reports furnished by the other officers, in all which cases the obligation is acknowledged INTRODUCTION. IX by inverted commas, and by personally mentioning the individual who supplied the account. The various observations made on board the Hecla during the voyage, have been carefully collected into tables on the model of those of Wales and Bayly, by Captain Sabine, to whom I am in- debted for the arrangement of nearly the whole of the Appendix, and for the superintendence of that part of the work during its progress through the press. I feel it no less a duty than a pleasure to acknowledge that, in the performance of this task, Captain Sabine has added another to the many obligations I owe him, for his va- luable advice and assistance during the whole course of this voyage, to the credit of which his individual labours have so essentially contributed. Of the manner in which the subject of natural his- tory, contained in the Appendix, has been treated by those gen- tlemen who did me the favour to undertake the examination and description of the specimens brought home by the Expedition, it does not become me to speak; but I may be permitted to offer them my best acknowledgments for the very handsome and ready manner in which they rendered me their assistance on this oc- casion. The Drawings made by Lieutenants Beechey and Hoppner were put into the hands of skilful engravers, soon after the arrival of the ships in the River, such of them being selected for publication as were considered most likely to afford interest or entertainment. It must be confessed, however, that there is little in the scenery of the Polar regions on which the art of the painter can be exercised with ad- vantage ; and the opportunities were necessarily the less frequent on the late voyage, in consequence of the length of time which we X INTRODUCTION. were confined to one spot. Of the merit of the drawings made by Lieutenants Beechey and Hoppner, I am not a competent judge, further than as regards the accuracy and faithfulness of the delineation ; and to this I am anxious to bear the most unqualified testimony, no less than to the zeal and industry displayed by these gentlemen* whenever opportunities offered of performing this branch of their, duty, in compliance with their Lordships' Instructions on that head. The Charts contained in this volume, comprising surveys of every coast visited by the Expedition during the voyage, are reduced from those drawn on board the Hecla under my immediate in- spection, by Mr. Bushnan, Midshipman of that ship, a gentleman well skilled in the construction of charts, and in the art of marine surveying. The original charts are lodged in the Hydrographical Office of the Admiralty, together with a detailed account of all the angles and other materials used in their construction. As it was known that no reliance could be placed on the compasses from the spot where our discoveries commenced (namely, from the entrance of Sir James Lancaster's Sound, westward), it was deter- mined, from the first, altogether to reject magnetic bearings in the construction of the charts, using only those deduced astrono- mically from the sun's altitude and azimuth, together with its angular distance from the object whose true bearing was required. Astro- nomical bearings were always thus obtained at the same time with observations for latitude and longitude. Whenever it was considered expedient to take them at other times, the log was of necessity re- sorted to, in order to obtain the ship's place from the nearest observation; and when this time happened to fall nearly midway INTRODUCTION. Xf between two observations, the mean of the reckoning, worked backwards and forwards, was taken, to fix the ship's place. In the selection of angles for the construction of the charts, those have, for obvious reasons, been preferred, which were most easterly or westerly, when an observation for latitude was made ; and those which were most northerly or southerly, at the time of an actual observation for determining the longitude. When angles only were taken, that is, when the sun was obscured so as to prevent the possibility of ob- taining his altitude and azimuth, the angles were used by laying them off from one or more points, whose geographical position had been previously fixed ; and by this means, in many instances, the former angles have been found to correspond and intersect accurately, when there would otherwise have been considerable doubt as to the exact place of the ship. The observations for latitude and longitude have been seldom or never made by less than two, and frequently by three or four, observers, and a mean of these used in the con- struction of the chart. The observers were generally Captain Sabine, Lieutenant Beechey, Mr. Hooper, and myself; the angles were taken with a sextant; sometimes by myself, and sometimes by Lieutenant Beechey, to whose skill and industry in this depart- ment of my duty, I am happy to acknowledge myself very materially indebted. A detailed account having been given by Captain Sabine in the Appendix, of the chronometers used in obtaining the longitudes for the survey, and of the mode of correcting their rates, it is unne- cessary for me to add any thing on that subject, the care which has been bestowed upon them being sufficiently apparent on an inspection of the tables. In the daily winding of the chronometers, Captain Xil INTRODUCTION. Sabine was assisted by Mr. Hooper, purser of the Hecla, a gentleman to whose zeal and exertions, during a period of three years that we have been employed together on this service, I am more indebted than I can adequately express. By those who have been accustomed to the charge of chronometers for any length of time, and who know the weight and importance of that charge, it will be considered as deserving no small credit on the part of these gentlemen, that, for a period of nearly twenty months, during which, eleven chronometers were on board the Hecla, only two instances occurred of a single; chronometer being suffered to go down by neglect. >..p. VT The observations for the variation of the magnetic needle, made on board the ships, have been altogether omitted in the course of the narrative ; because, until a correction for the effects of local attraction has been applied, they give little or no information as to the true amount ; the whole, therefore, have been referred to the Appendix, in the order in which they were taken. A number of these, obtained for the express purpose of ascertaining the amount of the ship's attraction upon the needle, with her head placed in different di- rections, and when the dip and true variation were known, will be found useful, perhaps, towards establishing some general formula for the correction of those errors at sea. Such a formula, however, is the less important from the facility with which the amount of this irregularity may at almost any time be found, when the sun is visible, by taking azimuths on a north and south magnetic course, in order to obtain the true variation, and then upon any other required direction of the ship's head. For the purposes of navigation, indeed, it is generally necessary only to ascertain the variation to be allowed on one or more courses, without regard to the true amount. This is par- INTRODUCTION. XIU ticularly the case when magnetic bearings are made use of in the construction of a chart, a mode of surveying which, of course, will only be resorted to when absolutely necessary. In such cases, it will be proper to observe the variation of the needle upon the same course as that on which the bearings are taken ; by this means a degree of correctness may be attained, which would be little expected by those who are unaccustomed to adopt this precautiouj^ and most of those errors avoided, which it has been usual to attri-fi bute to a defect in the compasses. To avoid unnecessary repetition in the course of the following Narrative, it must be remarked that all the bearings are the true ones, unless otherwise expressly noticed ; and the whole of the latitudes are North, and the longitudes West from the meridian of Greenwich. The temperatures were registered entirely by Fahrenheit's thermometer, and it may be necessary to inform the general reader, that the signs + and — preceding any number of degrees, signify above or below zero of that scale. .; The temperature of the sea at different depths was obtained, unless otherwise noticed, by Sixe's self-registering thermometer, confined in an iron case, and attached to the deep-sea lead. The bottle used for bringing up water from different depths below the surface, was invented by Doctor Marcet, expressly for the use of this Expedition2 bottom. Being thus set, it is let down to any depth required, byo XIV INTRODtJC'riON. a line passing through a hole in a spherical iron weight about the size of a four-pounder shot, which is retained on board till the instrument is low enough ; the weight is then let go, and running rapidly down the line, strikes the catch so as to release it, and close the apertures, confining the water which has entered the cylinder. This instrument, from its extreme simplicity, and the certainty with which it obtains the water from a known depth, seems the best of any which has yet been adopted for this purpose. Care has been taken to avoid, as much as possible, the use of technical expressions, which might serve to render the Narrative unintelligible to any but seamen : as, however, such expressions cannot at all times be dispensed with, especially in the navigation among ice, the nature of which is totally different from any other, I have sub- joined an Explanation of the few terms of this kind which occur in the course of my Journal. I had once thought to have cursorily drawn up a connected Nar- rative of the numerous efforts and the results of former Expedi- tions sent out, by this country and other maritime nations, to ex- plore the Arctic regions, from the earliest periods to the present time ; but as this would have occupied a considerable space, and, after all, would have been but a brief abstract of what Forster, Burney, and Barrow, have already done, it appeared, on second thoughts, a superfluous undertaking. My motive indeed, it must be frankly owned, was rather of a selfish kind, the gratification of myself and comrades, by thus bringing together the repeated exertions of two centuries, and those of a single voyage, and by instituting a com- parison of their results, so favourable and so flattering to all of us INTRODUCTION. W who had the good fortune to be employed on that voyage. Here, however, I must be permitted to say that, whatever the extent of our success may have been, it is to be ascribed, in a great degree, to the zealous and cordial cooperation of Lieutenant Liddon and all the officers of both ships, and the uniform good conduct of the men, to all of whom, collectively and indivi- dually, I am most happy in availing myself of this opportunity, of publicly rendering that justice which is so eminently their due. In closing this introductory part of the work, I would willingly offer a few words by way of apology, for the many faults which, I am but too well convinced, will be found in the stile of the Narrative. It has been said, " Les marins ecrivent mal, mats avec assez de candeur" None can feel more deeply than myself the truth of the former part of this assertion ; and none, I can with equal sincerity aver, have studied more to deserve the concluding part; but I build my chief hopes of disarming the severity of criticism, on a consideration of that early period of life at which the nature of our profession calls us from our studies, and which, in my own case, drew me away at the age of twelve, and has kept me constantly employed at sea ever since. The extent of my aim has been, to give a plain and faithful account of the facts which I collected, and the observations which were made by myself and others, in the course of the voyage ; and these, as far as they go, may be relied on as scrupulously exact. It is for others, better qualified than ourselves, to make their deductions from those facts. We collected, and have brought home, specimens of the natural productions of those seas and islands which we visited ; marking with XVI INTRODUCTION. care the places at which they were respectively procured ; and it is hoped, that the papers in the Appendix, relating to Natural History, will shew that no great loss to that branch of science has been sustained, by the absence of a professional naturalist in the Expe- dition. In fact, Captain Sabine, in a great degree, supplied the place of a person of this description ; and to him, in particular, the Appendix will shew, that science and philosophy stand greatly indebted for a collection of facts and experiments, in a part of the world hitherto but little known, and never before visited by Eu- ropeans. ~:i^)iMir*m'i after disposed of as we may think proper to determine. ' Given under our hands the 1st day of May, 1819. jam/- (Signed) Melville, liioH G. MooRE, ' ^^"ovf a M-gmfsd 1U0X }' G. CocKBURN. Bi/ Command of their Lordships, (Signed) J. W. Croker. •- sfljt no ' vsra ii iiDfxfw ■Iq vi Tjjov 'Bol oi To ^1 io ja; Lieutenant William Edward Party , Commanding His Mcfjesty s Ship the Hecla. ma Aih liqoi 9V^ ' >ns uoY ■.a III -■-,' !;.^..w io :> 3i{ijnri,oi^ 4 hoB gTjoi bn£ ^ qu b9l-B98 9d oJ Ua siu ibuiw | Qham 9¥fid -^sra ^od^ gJierio lo VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY. VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. CHAPTER I. PASSAGE ACROSS THE ATLANTIC ENTER DAVIs' STRAIT UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT TO PENETRATE THE ICE TO THE WESTERN COAST VOYAGE UP THE STRAIT PASSAGE THROUGH THE ICE TO THE WESTERN COAST ARRIVAL OFF POSSESSION BAY, ON THE SOUTHERN SIDE OF THE ENTRANCE INTO SIR JAMES LANCASTER'S SOUND. 1 HE Hecla and Griper were ready to drop down the river in the early part 1819. of April ; but, the wind continuing to the eastward, the pilots would not v^.^ venture to turn them down. The wind remained in the same quarter till the beginning of May, beyond which time it would not have been prudent to delay our moving. Application was, therefore, made for a steam-boat to tow the ships to Northfleet, and on the 4th, at eight A.M., the Hecla was taken in tow by the Eclipse, of sixty-horse power. With a fresh breeze right a-head, she moved at the rate of three miles and a half an hour through the Avater, and was made fast to the buoy at Northfleet at a quarter past noon. The steam- boat returned to Deptford for the Griper, and arrived with her at night. The guns and gunner's-stores were received on baord on the 6th ; and, all the iron being now stowed, as it would probably remain for the rest of the voyage, the afternoon of that day was occupied in obtaining some steady observations on the irregularities of the magnetic needle on board the Hecla, by turning her head round to each point of the compass in succession. These observations will be found in the Appendix. 2 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 1819. The ships took their powder on board on the 7th, and moved to the LoAver- x,,^^ Hope. On the evening of the following day they anchored at the Nore, where the instruments and chronometers were embarked. I furnished Lieu- tenant Liddon with a complete copy of the Instructions which I had received from the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, together with an order containing general directions for the economical use of the provisions and stores, and for the mode of registering the various observations to be made during the voyage ; appointing also certain places of rendezvous in case of unavoidable separation. Captain Sabine went on shore at Garrison-Point, on the 9th, to make ob- servations on the magnetic force with some needles of a new construction by Captain Henry Kater. Of these observations an account by Captain Sabine will be found in the Appendix. Commissioner Boyle came on board on the evening of the 10th, to superin- tend the payment of the arrears of wages, and three months' advance, to the seamen and marines. On the following day, when the men had supplied themselves with a sufficient stock of clothes, according to a list which had been previously issued, the ships weighed at ten A.M., and at noon were abreast the Nore-light. The wind being free, the Hecla, at sunset, had out- sailed the Griper about three miles. Wed. 12. Finding the Griper continued to detain us this morning, I determined to take her in tow, and at three P.M. we ran through Yarmouth Roads, but anchored in the evening with the flood-tide, the wind being too light to enable the ships to stem it. Soon after midnight we again weighed, the Frid. 14. wind having got round to the N.b.W^. On the morning of the 14th, in beating to the northward, the Hecla touched the ground on the east end of Sheringham-Shoals, Cromer Light-house bearing S.b.E. per compass. The pilot should not have brought it to the eastward of south, on which bearing there is no danger. Finding the ships made no way, and that it would not be practicable to anchor with the lee-tide, we bore up for Yarmouth Roads, and anchored within the Cockle Gat at two P.M. Sat. 15. At noon on the following day, while getting under way, I received a visit from Captain Wells, of His Majesty's sloop the Wye, who kindly offered every assistance in his power, and sent us our last supply of English beef, as we passed his ship. A favourable breeze springing up on the morning of Sun. 16. the 16th, the Griper was taken in tow, and at two P.M. on the 19th, we made Wed. 19. Fair Island. OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 3 It fell calm in the evening, and several fine cod fQadus MorhuaJ and coal- fish fGadus Carbonarius) were caught ; the centre of the island bearing N.E. half N. per compass, distant eight or nine miles. This was the last supply of fresh fish that we obtained during the voyage. It was light enough at mid- night, to see Fair Island distinctly at the distance of ten miles. On the 20th, we spoke the Danish brig David Eske, from Copenhagen, Thur. 20. bound to Disko Island. The Griper was taken in tow again in the evening, and we rounded the northern-point of the Orkneys, at the distance of two miles and a half, having from thirty to thirty-six fathoms of water. We made the island of Rona on the 21st., and Bara on the following Fnd. 21. morning. The position of these islands by our observations is : Sat. 22. BARA. RONA. Latitude, ... 59° 04' 24". 59° 05' 54". Longitude, . . 6° 14' 34". 5° 52' 04". As we ran along to the northward of them, at the distance of six or seven miles, the soundings were from fifty to seventy-five fathoms, the deepest being off Bara, on a bottom of gravel, coarse sand, and broken shells. It is recommended by the most experienced of the Greenland Masters, to cross the Atlantic to Davis' Strait, about the parallel of 57|° or 58°, and I shaped our course accordingly. A bottle was thrown overboard, containing a printed paper, stating the date and the situation of the ships, with a request, in six European languages, that any person finding it would forward it to the Secretary of the Admiralty, with a notice of the time and place where it was found *. One bottle, at least, was thrown out daily during the voyage, except when the ships were " beset" in the ice. The wind being right aft on the morning of the 24th, the Griper, still in Mon. 24. tow, took the wind out of our sails, and forged a-head, obliging us to cast off the hawser. Soon after noon we made Rockall ; its latitude, by our observations, was 57° 38' 40", and its longitude 13° 47' 42". The geogra- phical position of this remarkable rock was determined by Captain Capel, in 1818, to be lat. 57° 39' 32", long. 13° 31' 16", which is to be preferred to * The purpose intended to be answered by this kind of communication, will be best understood, by referring to my Instructions from the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. B I 4 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY ours, owing to the distance at which we passed it. There is, perhaps, no more striking proof of the infinite value of chronometers at sea, than the certainty with which a ship may sail directly for a single rock like this, rising like a speck out of the ocean, and at the distance of forty-seven leagues from " any other land. At seven P.M., the Griper having again dropped five or six miles astern, we hove to for her to come up ; and, taking this opportunity to try the temperature of the water below the surface by Six's self-registering thermometer, we unexpectedly obtained soundings in one hundred and forty fathoms, on a bottom of very fine white sand, Rockall bearing S. 85° E., distant thirty miles and three-quarters. The temperature of the water at the bottom was 47|°, that of the surface being 491°, and of the air 50°. The Griper was again taken in tow, with a breeze from the eastward, which in- Tues. 25. creased to a fresh gale the following morning, when the hawser, by which we towed the Griper, gave way ; we hove to for her in the evening, being in lat. 57° 04' 10", long. 17° 52' 50", when some water was brought up from one hundred fathoms' depth in the bottle contrived by Doctor Marcet ; its specific gravity was 1.0268, at the temperature of 58°, that of the surface water being the same. The temperature of the water at the same depth was 49°, that of the surface being 50°, and of the air 50|°. Tliur. 27. On the 27th, we cast off the Griper, and hauled a little to the northward, in order to pass near the spot where Lieutenant Pickersgill obtained sound- ings, from three hundred and twenty to three hundred and thirty fathoms, on the 29th of June, 1776 ; and, at six P.M., being in lat. 56° 59' 39", and long, by chronometers, 24° 33' 40", the deep-sea clarams were sent down with one thousand and twenty fathoms of line, without finding bottom. The temperature of the sea at that dejith was 45|°, that of the surface being 48|°, and of the air 49°. Frid. 28. It fell calm towards noon on the 28th, the ship being in lat. 57° 26' 16", long. 25° 11' 51". The current was tried in a boat moored by an iron kettle, in the usual way, but not the smallest stream was perceptible. Six's ther- mometer was sent down to one hundred and twenty fathoms, but did not indicate the temperature, owing to the mercury rising past the index, instead of pushing it up before it ; a failure 1 have often had occasion to regret in this useful instrument, when thus exposed to a very sudden change of temperature. It might, perhaps, be improved for this particular purpose, by making the lower end of each index a little larger, so as to prevent the passage of the mercury between it and the tube. Some water, from one OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 5 hundred and thirty fathoms' depth, was at the temperature of 48° on coming to the surface, that of the surface being 49°, and of the air 49°. Its specific gravity was 1.0266 at the temperature of 61°, being the same as that of the surface-water. The wind veered to the westward on the 30th, and increased to a fresh Sun. .30. gale, with an irregular sea, and heavy rain, which brought us under our close-reefed topsails. At half-past one, P.M., we began to cross the space in which the " Sunken Land of Bus'' is laid down in Steel's chart from England to Greenland ; and, in the course of this and the following day, we tried for soundings several times without success, the ship's position being as folloAvs: LONGITUDE. FATHOMS. - - - ^ 29° 30' 160 LATITUDE, 57° 46' 57 49 58 02 58 07 58 14 58 13 - - - - 29 22 90 - - - - 29 32 80 - - - - 29 34 85 - - - - 29 46 100 - - - - 30 52 170 This being the anniversary of His Majesty's birth-day, and the weather Friday4. being calm and fine, I directed an additional allowance of grog to be served out, or, in seamen's phrase, " the main brace to be spliced." In the evening, being then in lat. 55° 01', and long. 35° 56', we tried for soundings with two hundred and fifty fathoms of line, without finding bottom. The temperature of the sea at that depth was 44|°, surface 44,j°, air 43°. On the 7th and 8th, we had hard gales from the westward, with a heavy 7 and 8. sea. Indeed, from the 1st to the 14th of June, we experienced a continued series of unfavourable winds and unpleasant weather, so that very little progress could be made to the westward. On the 13th, being in lat. 57° 51', and long. 41° 05', the temperature of Sun. 13. the sea, at two hundred and thirty-five fathoms' depth, was found to be 39°, surface 40|°, air 41 1°. A very slight current was found to set to the southward. We saw, to-day, large flocks of sheerwaters (Procellaria PuffinusJ, called by the sailors, " cape hens," from an idea that they are only to be. found near Cape Farewell. I do not remember to have met with these birds in any other part of Davis' Strait, or in Baffin's Bay. On the 15th, a breeze sprung up from the eastward, and at noon we very Tues.i5. 6 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY unexpectedly saw land at a great distance, bearing due north. This could be no other than the land about Cape Farewell, of which the longitude, by our chronometers, being the same as that of the ship, was 42° 56' 41", agreeing nearly with that given in the tables of Maskelyne, Mendoza Rios, and Robertson, and in the Connaissance des Terns, being from 2° to 3° to the eastward of the po- sition assigned to it in most of the charts. This accounts for a remark, which is common among the whalers, that they always make this headland in coming from the eastward, sooner than they expect ; a circumstance which they natu- rally attribute to the effect of a westerly current. If the latitude of Cape Farewell be so far to the northward as 59° 37' 30'', which is the mean of nine different authorities, our distance from it this day must have been more than forty leagues. It is by no means impossible that the bold land of Greenland may be distinguished at so great a distance ; and it is proper to remark, that the weather, at the time we saw it, was precisely that which is said to be most favourable for seeing objects at a great distance, namely, just before or after rain, when the humidity of the atmosphere increases its transparency *. Wed. 16. The wind again backed to the westward on the 16th, and we stretched to the Thur. 17. northward towards the land. On the evening of the 17th, being in lat. 58° 52', and long. 48° 12', the colour of the water was observed to be of a lighter green than that of the ocean in general ; but we could find no soundings with two hundred and ninety fathoms of line. The temperature of the sea at that depth, was 38|°, of the surface, 38|, and of the air, 381°. Frid. 18. Early in the morning of the 18th, in standing to the northward, we fell in with the first " stream" of ice we had seen, and soon after saw several ice- bergs. At daylight the water had changed its colour to a dirty brownish tinge. We had occasion to remark the same in entering Davis' Strait in 1818, when no difference in its temperature was perceptible. The temperature of the wa- ter this morning was 36^°, being 3° colder than on the preceding night ; a de- crease that was probably occasioned by our approach to the ice. We ran through a narrow part of the stream, and found the ice beyond it to be " packed" and heavy. The birds were more numerous than usual ; and, besides the fulmar petrels, boatswains, and kittiwakes, we saw, for the first time, some rotges {"Alca AlleJ dovekies, or black guillemots (Colymbus GrylleJ and terns (Sterna Hirundo,) the latter known best to seamen by the name of the Greenland swal- low. Soon after noon, being in lat. 59° 40', long. 47° 46', and the water being * Humboldt. Personal Narrative, I. pp. 81. 101, 102. OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 7 of the same colour as in the morning, we tried for soundings, but could find no ^^l^- bottom with two hundred and sixty fathoms. The temperature of the sea at ^,*-t-v.' that depth was 39°, that of the surface being then 37°, and of the air 35°. The specific gravity of the surface water which at noon was 1.0262, at the temperature of 56", had decreased to 1.0257, at that of 57°. On the 19th, at noon we were Sat. 19. in latitude, by observation on the ice, 59° 48' 26"*, and in longitude, by the chronometers, 48° 01' 50", when a current was found to set S. 50° W. at the rate of six miles per day. A breeze springing up from the eastward, we bore away to the W.N.W., through rather close " sailing ice." The fog which had pre- vailed during the day cleared away in the evening, and discovered to us the coast of Greenland, bearing from N. 3° W. to N. 62° E., at the distance of twelve or thirteen leagues. On the following morning a very remarkable hill, being the Sun. 20. highest land in sight, was found, by a base measured by Massey's patent log, to be in lat. 60° 53' 29 ', and long. 48° 42' 22". This position answers nearly to an island called Nona in Arrowsmith's chart, a little to the eastward of Cape De- solation. The water still continued of the same dirty colour as before ; but at half past four P.M., when we hove to, for the purpose of taking the Griper in tow, we could find no bottom with a hundred and forty fathoms of line. On the evening of the 21st, having run to the westward as far as 55° 01' W. in the Mon. 21. lat. of 61° 26'; we observed the colour of the water to have changed from the brownish tinge before-mentioned, to a light bluish green ; and it is remarkable that its specific gravity was found to have increased, within a few hours, from 1.0257 to 1.0261, both being at the temperature of 57° when weighed. These experiments seem to confirm those made on the 18th, and to render it highly probable, that the brown colour remarked in the sea was occasioned by the admixture of a large portion of fresh water, supplied by the melting of the snow and ice. On the 21st and 22d, we sailed to the W.N.W. in an open sea ; and, onTues. 22. the 23d, at noon, being in lat. 62° 43' 09", long. 61° 32' 49", we saw several Wed. 23. icebergs, and some loose ice, to the north-westward. We obtained soundings * The ice here havmg a motion -which was very perceptible in the artificial horizon, we had recourse to a mode of observing the meridian altitude, which we had occasionally adopted in the former voyage. Two observers brought the same limb of the sun down in separate horizons ; the first of these taking care never to allow the two images to separate entirely, and the second never permitting them to overlap. The mean of the two ob- servations being then taken, the error arising from the rolling motion of the ice may thus be in a great measure obviated, and the altitude obtained within the nearest minute. 8 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 1819. in the evening in two hundred fathoms, fine sandy bottom, being close to a v,,^^ large iceberg, from which copious streams of water were flowing on the side next the sun. Tluir.24. On the clearing up of a fog, on the morning of the 24th, we saw a long chain of icebergs, extending several miles in a N.b.W. and S.b.E. direction ; and, as we approached them, we found a quantity of " floe-ice" intermixed with them, beyond which, to the westward, nothing but ice could be seen. At noon being in lat. 63° 34' 24", long. 61° 34' 28", we had soundings, with one hundred and twenty fathoms of line, on a bottom of fine sand, which makes it probable that most of the icebergs were aground in this place. In the afternoon, we sailed within the edge of the ice, as much as a light westerly wind would admit, in order to approach the western land, as directed by my instructions. Some curious efiects of atmospheric refraction were observed this evening, the low ice being at times considerably raised in the horizon, and constantly altering its appearance. An iceberg, at the distance of two or three njiles from us, assumed an inverted shape, as in the , following figure : Inverted Image. Iceberg. Frid.25, The weather being nearly calm on the morning of the 25th, all the boats were kept a-head, to tow the ships through the ice to the westward. It remained tolerably open till four P.M., when a breeze, freshening up from the eastward, caused the ice through which we had lately been towing, to close together so rapidly, that we had scarcely time to hoist up the boats before the ships were immoveably " beset." The clear sea which we had left was about four miles to the eastward of us, Avhile to the westward nothing but one extensive field of ice could be seen. It is impossible to conceive a more helpless situation than that of a ship thus beset, when all the power that can be applied will not alter the direction of her head a Sat. 26. single degree of the compass. On the 26th, we were in lat. by observation, 63° 59' 29", and long. 61° 42' 58", having one hundred and twenty-five fathoms, on a fine sandy bottom. The deep-sea line indicated a drift to the S.b.W. Some of our gentlemen, having walked a mile or two from the ships, imagined that they saw the marks of a sledge upon the ice, but, as OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 9 no traces either of doars or of one human foot appeared, they were perhaps 1819. June. mistaken. The observations made here on the dip and variation of the magnetic needle, and on the intensity of the magnetic force, as well as the result of a number of lunar distances, obtained on this and the two following days, while thus beset, will be found in the Appendix. The wind increased to a strong gale from the northward, which continued the whole of the following day-; when we found by observation that the ships had drifted Sun. 27. S. 23° W., thirteen miles and a quarter, the soundings having decreased to one hundred and twenty fathoms. A large black whale, (Balcena MysticetusJ being the first, was seen near the ships.' It is usual for these animals to descend head-foremost, displaying the broad fork of their enormous tail above the surface of the water ; but, on this occasion, the ice was so close as not to admit of this mode of descent, and the fish went down tail-foremost, to the great amusement of our Green- land sailors. As long as the wind continued to blow strong towards the ice, so as to keep it close, the ships lay securely sheltered from the sea ; but at nine in the evening, when it veered a little to the westward, the ice became more slack, and we began to feel the effects of the swell which was thus admitted from without : each roll of the sea forced the heavy masses of ice against the rudder and counter with such violence as would have greatly endan- gered a ship built in the ordinary way ; strengthened as ours were, however, they escaped without damage. Frequent endeavours were made to heave the heads of the ships round, in order that they might receive the heaviest pressure on their bows, but every attempt proved unsuccessful, and we re- mained in the same unpleasant situation during the whole of the 28th. Mon. 2i. While in this state, a large white bear came near the Griper, and was killed by her people, but he simk between the pieces of ice. This animal had, probably, been attracted by the smell of some red herrings which the men were frying at the time. It is a common practice with the Greenland sailors to take advantage of the strong sense of smelling which these creatures possess, by enticing them near the ships in this manner. The swell had somewhat subsided on the 29th, but the ships remained Tues. 29. firmly fixed in the ice as before. In the course of the day we saw land bearing N. 69° W. about thirteen leagues distant, appearing from the mast- head like a group of islands, and situated near to the entrance of Cumber- c |0 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 1819. land Strait ; the soundings were one hundred and thirty-five fathoms ; the temperature of the sea at that depth 30° ; that of the surface being the same ; Wed. 30. and of the air 34°. On the 30th, the ice began to slacken a little more about the ships ; and, after two hours' heaving with a hawser on each bow brought to the capstan and windlass, we succeeded in moving the Hecla about her own length to the eastward, where alone any clear sea was visible. The ice con- tinuing to open still more in the course of the day, we were at length enabled to get both ships into open water, after eight hours' incessant labour. Our first attempt to approach the western coast having thus failed, I consulted the Greenland Masters, as to what were the most likely means to be adopted for effecting this object. Mr. Allison thought it would be advisable to run a degree or two back again to the southward ; while Mr. Fife was of opinion, that it might be attempted, with better chance of success, about the latitude of Mount Raleigh, which forms one side of the narrowest part of Davis' Strait. I determined on the latter, as being more conformable to the tenor of my instructions ; and a course was accordingly shaped close along the edge of the ice, which led us considerably to the eastward of north, in order to take advantage of any opening which might occur. On getting into clear water, we found that the rudders were much rubbed by the blows they had received while beset in the ice. July, On the 1st and 2d of July, we continued to keep close to the edge of the 1st & 2d. ice without perceiving any opening in it. Its outer margin consisted of heavy detached masses, much washed by the sea, and formed what is technically called " a pack," this name being given to ice when so closely connected as not to admit the passage of a ship between the masses. Within the margin of the pack, it appeared to consist of heavy and extensive floes, having a bright ice-blink over them ; but no clear water could be discovered to the westward. The birds, which had hitherto been seen since our first approach to the ice, were fulmar petrels, little auks, looms, (Uria Brunnkhii,) and a few glaucous gulls, (harus Glaums.) Sat. 3. On the morning of the 3d the wind blew strong from the eastward, with a short breaking sea and thick rainy weather, which made our situation for some hours rather an unpleasant one, the ice being close under our lee. Fortunately, however, we weathered it by stretching back a few miles to the southward. In the afternoon the wind moderated, and we tacked again to the northward, crossing the Arctic circle at four P.M., in the longitude of 57° 27' W. We passed at least fifty icebergs in the course of the day, many vt W>J\- ^ OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. U of them of large dimensions. At a quarter past five P.M., we sounded in 1819. one hundred and fifteen fathoms ; the water at the surfaee of the sea had the vi^p^ same brownish tinge which has already been noticed, but no difference in its temperature or specific gravity could be detected. Towards midnight, the wind having shifted to the south-west, and moderated, another exten- sive chain of very large icebergs appeared to the northward : as we ap- proached them the wind died away, and the ships' heads were kept to the northward, only by the steerage way given to them by a heavy southerly swell, which, dashing the loose ice with tremendous force against the bergs, sometimes raised a white spray over the latter to the height of more than one hundred feet, and being accompanied with a loud noise, exactly resembling the roar of distant thunder, presented a scene at once sublime and terrific. We could find no bottom near these icebergs with one hundred and ten fathoms of line. At four A.M., on the 4th, we came to a quantity of loose ice, which lay Sun. 4. straggling among the bergs ; and, as there was a light breeze from the southward, and I was anxious to avoid, if possible, the necessity of going to the eastward, I pushed the Hecla into the ice, in the hope of being able to make our way through it. We had scarcely done so, however, before it fell calm ; when the ship became perfectly unmanageable, and was for some time at the mercy of the swell, which drifted us fast towards the bergs. All the boats were immediately sent a-head to tow ; and the Griper's signal was made, not to enter the ice. After two hours' hard pulling, we succeeded in getting the Hecla back again into clear water, and to a sufficient distance from the icebergs, which it is very dangerous to approach when there is any swell. At noon we were in lat. 66° 50' 47", long. 56° 47' 56", being near the middle of the narrowest part of Davis' Strait, which is here not more than fifty leagues across. Davis, on returning from his third voyage, sets it down at forty leagues* ; and in another place remarks : " In the latitude of sixtie- seuen degrees, I might see America, west, from me, and Desolation, (Green- land), eastf ." The truth of this last remark had been much doubted, till the observations made on our expedition of 1818, by determining the geographical position of the two coasts thus seen by Davis, served to confirm the accuracy of that celebrated and able navigator. * Hakluyt's Collection of Voyages. t The Worlde's Hi/drographicall Discription, 1595, 12 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 1819. On the 5th, it was necessary to pass through some heavy streams of ice, ^„„^i^ in order to avoid the loss of time by going round to the eastward. On this, Mon. 5. ag Qjj jnany other occasions, the advantage possessed by a ship of considerable weight in the water, in separating the heavy masses of ice, was very apparent. In some of the streams, through which the Hecla passed, a vessel of a hundred tons less burthen must have been immoveably beset. The Griper was on this, and many other occasions, only enabled to follow the Hecla by taking advantage of the openings made by the latter. Tues. 6. At noon, on the 6th, being in lat. 67° 44' 05 ", long. 57° 46' 26", we had soundings in one hundred and seventy-two fathoms, on a bottom' of shining sand, mixed with small black specks. A number of looms were killed, which being very good to' eat, were served to the officers and ship's company. A herd of sea-horses (Trichecus Roswiarus) being seen lying on a piece of ice, our boat succeeded in killing one of them. These animals usually lie huddled together, like pigs, one over the other, and are so stupidly tame, as to allow a boat to approach them, within a few yards, without moving. When, at length, they are disturbed, they dash, into the water in great confusion. It may be worth remarking, as a proof how tenacious the walrus sometimes is of life, that the animal killed to-day struggled violently for ten minutes after it was struck, and towed the boat twenty or thirty yards, after which, the iron of the harpoon broke ; and yet it was found, on examination, that the iron barb had penetrated both auricles of the heart. A quantity of the blubber was put into casks, as a winter's supply of lamp-oil. Wed. 7. On the 7th, in standing to the northward, we came to a stream of ice, three quarters of a mile wide, which obstructed bur passage in that direction. The wind died away as soon as we had entered the stream, and it required six hours' rowing in the boats to tow the ships into clear water beyond it. It is curious to observe, in passing under the lee of ice, however small its extent or height above the sea, an immediate decrease in thestrengthof the wind. This effect cannot be attributed to any degree of shelter afforded by the ice, as, in the cases to which I allude, it is, perhaps, not more than a single foot above the surface of the sea. At noon, being in lat., by observation, 68° 24' 52", and in long. 57° 00' 43", we obtained soundings in a hundred and seventy-five fathoms, on a bottom of greenish-coloured mud, into which the lead sunk several inches. At two P.M. a thermometer in the sun rose to 70°, the temperature of the shade being 44°, and the weather perfectly calm and cloudless. The card OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 13 commonly used in Walker's Azimuth Compass had traversed so sluggishly for 1819. some days past, that it was now found necessary to substitute a lighter one, ^Jtr^ supplied by the maker for this purpose. The looms and tern were numerous near the ice. On the 8th, at noon, we observed, in lat. 68° 30' 01", and long. 57° 22' 37",Thurs. 8. being 6' 51 " to the southward, and 9' 53" to the eastward of the dead reckon- ing. We sounded in a hundred and seventy-eight fathoms' water, the bottom being of the same nature as on the preceding day. On the 9th, having reached the latitude of 68° 45' 53", long. 57° 49' 51", the Frid. 9. ship was found to have made less northing by eleven miles and three quarters than the log gave. The soundings were a hundred and fifty-two fathoms, the lead being covered with soft green mud, mixed with sand and gravel. Large flocks of tern and looms were seen about the ice. A northerly wind prevented our making much progress, for the ice was still so compact in every part as to render it impossible to penetrate to the westward ; and nothing, therefore, remained to be done but to make the best way we could, by beat- ing to the northward along the edge of the pack. On the 10th a thick fog came on, which made great caution necessary in Sat. 10- sailing, there being a great many icebergs near us. There is, however, even in the thickest fog, a strong reflection of light from these immense bodies of ice, which, with an attentive look-out, is generally visible at a sufficient dis- tance to enable the navigator, if in smooth water, to avoid coming in contact with them. At noon, the wind being still against us, we had only reached the lat. of 69° 04' 28", being 9' 49" to the southward of the dead reckoning. The long, by the chronometers, was 58° 10' 30", being 23' 47" to the eastward of the account in two days. We obtained soundings in a hundred and sixty-seven fathoms, on a bottom of green mud,*Avith a little sand and gravel. At night the fog froze as it fell upon the rigging, making it difficult to work the ship among the ice. . A large bear (Urms MaritimusJ being seen on a piece of ice, near which we Sun. li. were passing this morning, a boat was despatched in pursuit, and our people succeeded in killingand towing it on board. As these animals sink immediately on being mortally wounded, some dexterity is requisite to secure them, by first throwing a rope over the neck, at which many of the Greenland seamen are remarkably expert. It is customary for the boats of the whalers to have two or three lines coiled in them, which not only gives them great stability, but, with good management, makes it difficult for a bear, when swimming, to put 1^ VOYAGE FOE, THE DISCOVERY 1819. his paw upon the gunwale, which they generally endeavour to do ; whereas, ,.^1^^ with our boats, which are more light and crank, and therefore very easily heeled over, I have more than once seen a bear on the point of taking pos- session of them. Great caution should, therefore, be used under such circum- stances in attacking these ferocious creatures. We have always found a board- ing-pike the most useful weapon for this purpose. The lance used by the whalers will not easily penetrate the skin, and a musket-ball, except when very close, is scarcely more efficacious. We sounded at noon in two hundred and two fathoms, being in lat. by ac- count, 69° 24' 40", long. 58° 16' 42", without making any allowance for the current, which, for the three preceding days, appeared to have been setting the ships to the S.S.E., at the rate of from eight to thirteen miles per day. In the afternoon, on the clearing up of the fog, we found ourselves so sur- rounded by ice, in every direction, that it became necessary to stretch to the eastward, to avoid the risk of being again beset, a circumstance which might have occasioned a serious loss of time. A great number of seals were seen as we sailed through the ice, but very seldom two together. Mon. 12. The weather was again so thick on the 12th, that we could seldom see above three or four hundred yards. The sun being visible, however. Captain Sabine and myself left the ship, and ascended an iceberg, in order to obtain the me- ridian altitude, which gave us the lat. of 69° 42' 43", and which was 8' 20" to the southward of the dead reckoning, our longitude, by account, being 57° 46" 13". Streams of the purest water were flowing from this berg, a luxury not so often enjoyed by seamen in any other navigation, and which is, per- haps, of essential importance in the preservation of health, were scurvy is the disease most to be apprehended. The fog froze so hard upon the sails and rigging during the night, that I believe some tons were shaken off in the Tues. 13. morning, to enable us to handle the ropes, and to work the ship with greater facility. The fields of ice and the icebergs must occasionally, during the summer, receive a considerable addition by this kind of deposit. Of the lat- ter when the fog had cleared away for a short time in the evening, we counted no less than sixty -two of large dimensions, at no great distance from us, be- sides a number of smaller ones. We were, at noon, in lat. by account, 70° 06" 32", and in long. 57° 33' 56"", having a hundred and forty -seven fathoms' water, on a muddy bottom. Wed. 14. The weather continued so foggy on the 14th, that very little progress could be made. We caught some fine specimens of the Clio Borealis, called by the OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 15 sailors whales' food, and also of Beroes, which were very numerous near the jgjg surface of the water. July. On the 15th, the fog being still as thick as before, our latitude, observed on Thur. 15. an iceberg, was 70° 28' 52" ; while that observed on board by Lieut. Beechey, with Captain Kater's altitude-instrument, was 70° 27' 43", the difference accord- ing exactly with the bearing and distance of the iceberg from the ship. The longitude was 59° 11' 58", and the variation of the needle, as observed upon the ice, had increased to 79° 48' westerly. Mr. Fisher made an experiment on the specific gravity of berg-ice. Having formed a piece of this ice into a cube, whose sides measured sixty-eight lines, he floated it in a tub of sea- water, of the specific gravity 1.0256, and at the temperature of 33°, when nine lines remained above the surface of the Avater, being nearly one-eighth. On the 16th, in running along the edge of the ice with a fresh breeze from Frid. 16. the south-west, we passed the Brunswick, whaler, of Hull, beating to the southward. She crossed within hail of the Griper, and the master informed Lieutenant Liddon that he had, on the 11th, left a large fleet of fishing-ships about the latitude of 74°, unable to proceed farther to the northward. We had been stopped in a similar manner, and in the same place, on the voyage of 1818, which renders it not improbable, that, at this period of the year, the same obstruction will generally be found to occur about that latitude. The annual experience of the whalers has, indeed, long ago, made it evident, that the facility with which a ship may sail up Davis' Strait, depends entirely upon the season at which the attempt is made. For the first fortnight in June, it i§ seldom practicable to get much beyond the Island of Disko, or about the latitude of 69° to 70°. Towards the 20th of that month, the ships usually reach the great inlet, called North-East Bay ; and, by the end of June, the ice allows them, though not without great exertion, to penetrate to the Three Islands of Baffin, which lie just beyond the seventy-fourth degree of latitude. From that time till about the end of August, the ice presents almost daily, less and less obstruction ; so that, if the object be simply to sail as far north as possible into Baffin's Bay, without regard to the capture of whales, there is every reason to believe that a ship, entering Davis' Strait on the 1st of July, may sail into the latitude of 74° or 75°, without meeting with any detention on account of the ice, and, perhaps, without even seeing the land till she arrive in a high latitude. On the 17th, the margin of the ice, appearing more open than we had yet Sat. 17. seen it, and there being some appeai-ance of a " water-sky" to the north- 16 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY west, I was induced to run the ships into the ice, though the weather was too thick to allow us to see more than a mile or two in that direction. We were, at noon, in latitude 72° 00' 21", longitude 59° 46' 18", the depth of water being one hundred and ninety fathoms, on a muddy bottom. The wind shortly after died away, as usual, and, after making a number of tacks, in order to gain all we could to the westward, we found ourselves so closely hemmed in by the ice on every side, that there was no longer room to work the ships, and we therefore made them fast to a floe, till the weather should clear up. The afternoon was employed in taking on board a supply of water from the floe. It may be proper at once to remark that, from this time till the end of the voyage, snow-water was exclusively made use of on board the ships for every purpose. During the summer months, it is found in abun- dance in pools upon the floes and icebergs, and in the Winter snow was dissolved in the coppers for our daily consumption. The fog cleared away in the evening, when we perceived that no further progress could be made through the ice, into which we had sailed to the westward about twelve miles. We were, therefore, once more under the necessity of returning to the eastward, lest a change of v/ind should beset the ships in their present situation. Previously, however, to our return, we made some ob- servations, on the ice, for the variation and dip of the magnetic needle, the foi-mer of which was found to be 80° 55' 27" W., and the latten'84i° ;4<' 9". Sun. 18. A thick fog came on again at night, and prevailed till near noon on the 18th when we came to a close but narrow stream of ice, lying exactly across our course, and at right angles to the main body of the ice. As this stream extended to the eastward as far as we could see from the " crow's nest," an endeavour was made to push the ships with all sail through the narrowest part. The facility with which this operation, technically called "boring," is perfonned, depends chiefly on having a fresh and free wind, with which we were not favoured on this occasion ; so that, when we had forced the ships about one hundred yards into the ice, their way was completely stopped. The stream consisted of such small pieces of ice, that when an attempt was made to warp the ships a-head by fastening lines to some of the heaviest masses near them, the ice itself came home, without the ships being moved for- ward. Every effort to extricate them from this helpless situation proved fruitless for more than two hours, when the Hecla was at length backed out, and succeeded in pushing through another part of the stream in which a small opening appeared just at that moment. All our boats were immediately OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 17 despatched to the assistance of the Griper, which still remained beset, and 1819. which no effort could move in any direction. We at length resorted to v^^J-^ the expedient of sending a whale-line to her from the Hecla, and then making all sail upon the latter ship, we succeeded in towing her out, head to wind, till she was enabled to proceed in clear water. The crossing of this stream of ice, of which the breadth scarcely exceeded three hundred yards, occupied us constantly for more than five hours and may ^eive as an example of the detention to which ships are liable in this kind of navigation. In the course of the afternoon, one of the Hecla's boats was upset by the ice, and Mr. Palmer, with all her crew, thrown out of her; but, by getting upon the ice, they fortunately escaped with no other injury than a thorough wetting. The wind having veered to the northward, we tacked ofF and on, beating Mon. 19. along the edge of the ice, in which no opening appeared, to encourage a hope of getting through it to the westward. At noon we had reached the lat. of 72° 31' 58", and long. 59° 03' 54'", our soundings being one hundred and forty-two fathoms, on a muddy bottom. In the afternoon, a ship running to the southward, and which we supposed to be one of the home- ward-bound whalers, passed us at the distance of seven miles. At noon, on the 20th, we were in lat., by account, 72° 57' 31 ", long. 58° 40' 57", Tue». 20. and the depth of water was one hundred and twenty fathoms, the bottom consisting of mud, with small black stones. At this time, the weather being perfectly calm, with a thick fog, we perceived that a current, setting to the S.S.W.,was drifting the ship towards a large iceberg in that direction ; and a quantity of floe-ice, which was driving the same way, threatened to enclose us between it and the berg. All the boats were instantly lowered, and sent a-head to tow, by which means we cleared the berg, just one minute before the floe-ice came forcibly in contact with it, surrounding it on every side. This iceberg was about one hundred and forty feet high in one part, and froiii the soundings we obtained near it, must have been aground in one hundred and twenty fathoms, so that its whole height was about eight hundred and sixty feet. The weather continued so foggy during the rest of the day, that it required our utmost attention to keep clear of the numerous ice-bergs which lay in our way. Early on the morning of the 21st, the fog cleared away, and discovered to wgd. 21. us the land called by Davis Hope Sanderson, and the Woman's Islands, being the first land we had seen invading northwards into Baffin's Bay, from D IS VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 181.9. the lat. of 63|°. We found ourselves in the midst of a great number of viiiX/ very high icebergs, of which I counted from the crow's nest, eighty-eight, besides many smaller ones. We tacked immediately to the westward, in order to take advantage of the only clear weather we had enjoyed for the last fourteen days, to examine the state of the ice, and observed at noon, in lat. 72° 58' 13", the long., by chronometers, being 58° 42' 11". The soundings were two hundred and twenty-eight fathoms, muddy-bottom, having deepened from one hundred and six, in sailing eight miles to the westward. Having now reached the latitude of 73°, without seeing a single opening in the ice, and being unwilling to increase our distance from Sir James Lan- caster's Sound, by proceeding much farther to the northward, I determined once more to enter the ice in this place, and to try the experiment of forcing our way through it, in order to get into the open sea, which the experience of the former voyage led me to believe we should find upon the western coast of Baffin's Bay. This determination was strengthened by the recollection of the serious obstructions we had met with the preceding year, in the neighbourhood of Prince Regent's Bay, where greater detention, as well as danger, had been experienced, than on any other part of that coast. Being now, therefore, favoured with clear weather, and a moderate breeze from the south-eastward, we ran into the ice, which, for the first two miles, consisted of detached pieces, but afterwards of floes of con- siderable extent, and six or seven feet in thickness. The wind died away towards midnight, and the weather was serene and clear. The altitude of the sun on the meridian below the pole, gave the latitude 72° 59' 13", being 11' 57" to the southward of that deduced from the observations of the preceding and following noons, which error may, perhaps, be attributed to the elevation of the horizon by terrestrial refraction. The temperature of the air at this time was 40° ; of the water, 34°, and the barometer stood at 29.57 inchfes. A large bear was seen on one of the floes, and we passed the tracks of many others. Thur. 22. On the 22d. the wind was light from the eastward, and we made very little progress. We had occasionally to heave the ships through with hawsers, between the heavy masses of ice, which became more and more close as we advanced, till, at length, towards the evening, we were fairly beset, there being no open water in sight from the mast-head in any quarter of the compass. Some hands were kept constantly employed in heaving OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 19 the ships through the ice, taking advantage of every occasional opening 1819- which presented itself, by which means we advanced a few hundred yards ^yli,' to the westward during the night. At six, A.M., on the 23d, a thick fog came on, which rendered it impos- Frid. 23. sible to see our way any further. It often happens, in thick weather, that much distance is lost by ships taking a wrong " lead," as the channels between floes of ice are technically called; so that, on the weather clearing, it is discovered, when too late, that another opening, perhaps a few yards only from that through which they had sailed, would have conducted them into clear water. We, therefore, warped to an iceberg, to which the ships were made fast at noon, to wait the clearing up of the fog, being in lat. 73° 04-' 10", long. 60° 09' 07". The soundings were one hundred and ninety -seven fathoms, on a muddy bottom, and the variation of the needle 82° 33' 21" westerly. Some observations on the intensity of the magnetic force, by Captain Sabine, will be found in the Appendix. At eight, P.M., the weather cleared up, and a few small pools of open water were seen here and there, but the ice was generally as close as before, and the wind being to the westward of north, it was not deemed advisable to move. When ships are thus beset, there is a great advantage in securing them to the largest body of ice that can be found, and particularly to the bergs, as they are by this means better enabled to retain their situation, the drift of the ice being generally less, in proportion to its depth under water. Another advantage in securing a ship to an iceberg is, that these bodies usually keep a small space of clear water under their lee, in consequence of the quicker drift of the floes and loose ice to leeward. It not unfrequently happens that a ship is thus dragged into clear water, as the sailors express it, that is, that the whole of the floe-ice is carried to leeward past the berg to which the ship is attached, leaving her at length in an open sea. The ice appearing to open a little in the W.N.W., on the morning of the Sat. 24. 24th, preparations were made for warping the ships in that direction, the wind being still to the westward of north, but the fog came on again so thick, that it was necessary still to remain at the berg. At noon, by our observations, we were in lat. 72° 59' 50", long. 60° 07' 54", making a drift of four miles and two-thirds in twenty-four hours, in a S. 1° E. direction. The soundings had deepened to two hundred and sixty-five fathoms, the bottom being light-green mud. The afternoon was occupied in obtaining 20 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 1819 azimuths on board the Hecla, with her head on different points of the July, compass, in order to ascertain the amount of the irregularities of the magnetic needle produced by local attraction. These observations will be found in ■ the Appendix, and by comparison with those previously made at Northfleet, will serve to shew in what degree the irregularities alluded to had increased with the increase of dip, and with the consequent diminution in the directive power of the earth's magnetism upon the needle. Sun. 2.5. The weather being clear on the morning of the 25th, and a few narrow lanes of water appearing to the westward, the Griper was made fast astern of the Hecla ; and her crew being sent to assist in manning our capstan, we proceeded to warp the ships through the ice. This method, which is often adopted by our whalers, has the obvious advantage of applying the whole united force in separating the masses of ice which lie in the way of the first ship, allowing the second, or even third, to follow close astern, with very little obstruction. In this manner we had advanced about four miles to the westward, by eight P.M., after eleven hours of very laborious exertion ; and . having then come to the end of the clear water, and the weather being again foggy, the ships were secured in a deep " bight," or bay in a floe, called by the sailors a " natural dock." An extra allowance of meat and spirits was served to the ship's companies, and all hands were permitted to go to rest till the state of the weather and of the ice should become more favourable. Mon.26. Early on the morning of the 26th, there was clear water as far as we could see to the westward, which on account of the fog, did not exceed the distance of three hundred yards. We made sail, however, and having groped our way for about half a mile, found the ice once more close in every direction, except that in which we had been sailing, obliging us to make the ships fast to a floe. I sent a boat away to endeavour to find a lane of clear water leading to the westward. She returned on board in an hour, without success, having with difficulty found her way to the ship, by our mus- quets, and other signals. The latitude here, by obsei-vation, was 73° 02' 17", long., by chronometers, 60° 11' 52", by which the drift of the ice in the last twenty-four hours appears to have been N. 1° E., five miles and three quarters, or in a direction nearly opposite to that of the wind. The soundings were two hundred and eight fathoms, on a muddy bottom. At half-past three, P.M., the weather cleared up, and a few narrow lanes of water being seen to the westward, every exertion was immediately made to get into them, , On beginning to heave, however, we found that the OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 21 " hole" of water, in which the Hecla lay, was now so completely enclosed 18I9. by ice, that no passage out of it could be found. We tried every corner, ^,lij but to no purpose ; all the power we could apply being insufficient to move the heavy masses of ice which had fixed themselves firmly between us and the lanes of water without. In the mean time. Lieutenant Liddon had succeeded in advancing about three hundred yards, and had placed the Griper's bow between two heavy floes, which it was necessary to separate before any further progress could be made. Both ships continued to heave at their hawsers occasionally, as the ice appeared to slacken a little, by which means they were now and then drawn a-head a few inches at a time, but did not advance more than half-a-dozen yards in the course of the night. By our nearing several bergs to the northward, the ice appeared to be drifting in that direction, the wind being moderate from the southward. About three A.M., by a sudden motion of the ice, we succeeded in getting Tues. 27. the Hecla out of her confined situation, and ran her up astern of the Griper. The clear water had made so much to the westward, that a narrow neck of ice was all that was now interposed between the ships and a large open space in that quarter. Both ships' companies were, therefore, ordered upon the ice to saw off the neck, when the floes suddenly opened sufficiently to allow the Griper to push through under all sail. No time was lost in the attempt to get the Hecla through after her, but, by one of those accidents to which this navigation is liable, and which renders it so precarious and un- certain, a piece of loose ice which lay between the two ships, was drawn after the Griper by the eddy produced by her motion, and completely blocked the narrow passage through which we were about to follow. Before we could remove this obstruction by hauling it back out of the channel, the floes were again pressed together, wedging it finnly and immoveably betwixt them ; the saws were immediately set to work, and used with o-reat effect, but it was not till eleven o'clock that we succeeded, after seven hours' labour, in getting the Hecla into the lanes of clear water which opened more and more to the westward. Our latitude, by account at noon, was 73° 05' 56 ", the longitude 60° 24! 27". Being now favoured with a fresh breeze from the S.E.b.S., we made con- siderable progress, though on a very crooked course, to the northward and westward. In one respect the character of the ice was here altered, as we found a great many floes of " young" or " bay" ice, which had probably been newly formed in the sheltered situations afforded by the larger floes. m VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY To avoid the necessity of going round, or where no other channel presented itself, we ran through several of these bay-floes, which were from four to six inches thick, ploughing up the ice before the ship's stem, at the rate of five miles an hour. If they were not very broad, the Hecla did not lose her Way in passing through them. Frequently, however, she was stopped in the middle, which made it necessary to saw and break the ice a-head, till she made another start, and, having run a short distance in clear water, was again imbedded in the same manner. We passed one field of ice, about ten feet in thickness, and many miles in length, as we could not see over it from the mast-head. This was the only " field," according to the definition ir- applied to that term by the whalers, that I had ever seen in Baffin's Bay. About eleven P.M. the lanes of open water a-head became very contracted, and at half-past eleven, in endeavouring to force through a floe, under a heavy press of canvass, the Hecla was completely wedged in, having run her own length into it, though its thickness was between a foot and eighteen inches. In the course of this day's sailing, the ships received many severe blows from the ice, but apparently suffered no damage. The concussions which the chrono- meters experienced, were, perhaps, such as few watches of this kind had ever before been exposed to ; but we did not subsequently discover that any alteration had taken place in their rates, in consequence of them. n:, ,• Wed. 28. The wind continued to blow strong from the south-east with heavy-rain ;• and at half-past three A.M., after several hours' sawing, in which the men suffered much from wet and fatigue, we succeeded in getting clear ; but after ' running a quarter of a mile, Avere again beset in the same manner. By the time the Griper had joined us, we had once more unavoidably hampered the Hecla among the ice, and did not succeed in extricating her till four P.M., after which we found so much clear water as we proceeded, that, with the exception of a few streams and " patches," which we met with on the following day, and through which the ships sailed without much difficulty, we had now passed every impediment which obstructed our passage to Sir James Lancaster's Sound. The breadth of this barrier of ice, which occupies the middle of Baffin's Bay, and which had never before been crossed in this latitude at the same season, was eighty miles, in a N. 63° W. direc- tion. I have been thus particular and minute, perhaps tediously so, in detailing our endeavours to obtain a passage through the ice to the western coast of Baffin's Bay, in order to shew how necessary it is to per- severe and not to be discouraged by frequent failures, nor deterred from '■;. f): OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 2^ entering the ice by the apprehension of being beset. By taking advantage of every little opening that is afforded, I believe that a strong-built vessel of proper size and weight may, in most seasons, be pushed through this barrier which occupies the centre part of Baffin's Bay, about this parallel of latitude. It must, at the same time, be confessed, that, had we not been favoured with strong south-easterly winds, it would probably have required several days longer to effect this passage. On the 29th, we had so much clear water, that the ships had a very per- Thur. 29. ceptible pitching motion, which, from the closeness of the ice, does not very often occur in the Polar regions, and which is, therefore, hailed with pleasure, as an indication of an open sea. At noon we had reached, by the i dead reckoning, the latitude of 73° 51' 17", and longitude 67° 47' 51 ", and we could find no bottom with three hundred and ten fathoms of line. At five P. M. the swell increased considerably, and, as the wind freshened up from the north-east, the ice gradually disappeared ; so that by six o'clock we were sailing in an open sea, perfectly free from obstruction of any kind. During the time we had been beset among the ice, the temperature of the air, in the shade, had varied from 28° to 38°, except in very clear and calm weather, when the thennometer had occasionally risen to 4<>i°. The tem- perature of the water had been almost uniformly from 31° to 33°, but soon after our leaving the ice this evening, it increased to 37°, which tem- perature continued for a run of sixty-three miles to the westward, and then fell to 32° and 33°, till we had entered Sir James Lancaster's Sound. At four A. M. on the 30th, two or three ice-bergs were in sight, being the Frid. 30. first we had seen since leaving the ice to the eastward. It is probable that these, together with some streams of ice which occurred in the afternoon, pro- duced the diminution in the temperature of the sea, to which I have alluded above, and which took place soon after noon on this day. The Griper detain- ing us considerably, and the sea being now sufficiently open to allow us to take her in tow, we hove-to at nine A. M. for that purpose. We now seemed all at once to have got into the head-quarters of the whales. They were so numerous that I directed the number to be counted during each watch, and no less than eighty-two are mentioned in this day's log. Mr. Allison, the Greenland master, considered them generally as large ones, and remarked, that a fleet of whalers might easily have obtained a cargo here in a few days. It is, I believe, a common idea among the Greenland fishermen, that the presence of ice is necessary to ensure the 24) VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 1819. finding of whales; but we had no ice in sight to-day, when they were J^J^ most numerous. At noon we observed, in lat. 74° 01' 57", being the first meridian altitude we had obtained for four days, and differing from the dead reckoning only two miles, which is remarkable, considering the slug- gishness of the compasses, and would seem to afford a presumptive proof that no southerly current exists in this part of Baffin's Bay. The longitude, by chronometers, was 75° 02' 14.". In the afternoon the wind broke us off from the N. N. W., which obliged us to cast off the Griper, and we carried all sail a-head to make the land. We saw it at half-past five P. M., being the high land about Possession Bay, and at the same time several streams of loose but heavy ice came in sight, which a fresh breeze was drifting fast to thie south-eastward. Sir James Lancaster's Sound was now open to the westward of us, and the experience of our former voyage had given us reason to believe that the two best months in the year for the navigation of these seas were yet to come. This consideration, together with the magnificent view of the lofty Byam Martin mountains, which forcibly recalled to our minds the events of the preceding year, could not fail to animate us with expectation and hope. If any proof were wanting of the value of local knowledge in the navigation of the Polar Seas, it would be amply furnished by the fact of our having now reached the entrance of Sir James Lancaster's Sound just one month earlier than we had done in 1818, although we had then sailed above a fortnight sooner, with the same general object in view, namely, to penetrate to the western coast of Baffin's Bay, where alone the North-west Passage was to be sought for. This difference is to be attributed entirely to the confidence which I felt, from the experience gained on the former voyage, that an open sea would be found to the westward of the barrier of ice which occupies the middle of Baffin's Bay. Without that confidence, it would have been little better than madness to have attempted a passage through so compact a body of ice, when no indication of a clear sea appeared beyond it. The Hecla's cables were bent, and the Griper's signal made to do the same. As we approached the land, the wind drew directly out of the sound, which is commonly found to be the case in inlets of, this nature, in which the wind generally blows directly up or down. A flock of white ducks, believed to be male eider-ducks, were seen in the afternoon, flying to the eastward. Sat- 31. - The wind increased to a fresh breeze on the morning of the 31st, whicli pi-evented our making much way to the westward. We stood in towards Cape Byam Martin, and sounded in eighty fathoms on a rocky bottom, at the distance OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. M of two miles in an east direction from it. We soon after discovered the flag- staff which had been erected on Possession Mount on the former expedition ; an object which, though insignificant in itself, called up every person imme- diately on deck to look at and to greet it as an old acquaintance. The Griper being considerably astern, I thought it a good opportunity to go on shore, in order to make some observations, while she was coming up. Captain Sabine and myself, therefore, left the ship, and landed in the same spot, near the mouth of the stream in Possession Bay, where observations had been made the preceding year. We found so much surf on the beach as to make it necessary to haul the boat up, to prevent her being stove. A number of loose pieces of ice had been thrown up above the ordinary high- water mark ; some of these were so covered by the sand which the sea had washed over them, that we were at a loss to know what they were, till a quantity of it had been removed. From the situation and appearance of these masses, it occurred to some of us that similar masses, found under ground in those spots called Kaltusw, in the islands near the coast of Siberia, might thus have been originally deposited. The land immediately at the back of Possession Bay rises in a gentle slope from the sea, presenting an open and extensive space of low ground, flanked by hills to the north and south. In this valley, and even on the hills, to the height of six or seven hundred feet above the sea, there was scarcely any snow, but the mountains at the back were completely covered with it. Tlie bed of the stream which winds along the valley is in many places several hundred yards wide, and in some parts from thirty to forty feet deep; but the quantity of water which it contained at this season was extremely small in proportion to the width between the banks, not exceeding forty feet on an average, and from one to three feet only in depth near the mouth of the stream. This feature is common in every part of the Polar regions in which we have landed ; the beds, or ravines, being probably formed by the annual dissolution of the snow during a long series of years. Some pieces of birch-bark having been picked up in the bed of this stream, in 1818, which gave reason to suppose that wood might be found growing in the interior, I directed Mr. Fisher to walk up it, accompanied by a small party, and to occupy an hour or two, while the Griper was coming up, and Captain Sabine and myself were employed upon the beach, in examining the nature and pro- ductions of the country. Mr. Fisher reported, on his return, that he had folio^wed the stream betsyieea E 26 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 1819. three and four miles, where it turned to the south-west, without discovering v^^-v-'L' any indications of a wooded country ; but a sufficient explanation respecting the birch-bark was, perhaps, furnished by his finding, at the distance of a quarter of a mile from the sea, a piece of whalebone two feet ten inches in length, and two inches in breadth, having a number of circular holes very neatly and regularly perforated along one of its edges, and which had un- doubtedly formed part of an Esquimaux sledge. This circumstance affording a proof of the Esquimaux having visited this part of the coast at no very distant period, it was concluded that the piece of bark, above alluded to, had been brought hither by these people. From the appearance of the whalebone, it might have been lying there for four or five years. That none of the Esqui- maux tribe had visited this part of the coast since we landed there in 1818, was evident from the flag-staff then erected still remaining untouched. Mr. Fisher found every part of the valley quite free from snow as high as he ascended it ; and the following fact seems to render it probable that no great quantity either of snow or sleet had fallen here since our lasl visit. . Mr. Fisher had not proceeded far, till, to his great surprise, he encountered the tracks of human feet upon the banks of the stream, which appeared so fresh, that he at first imagined them to have been recently made by some natives, but which, on examination, were distinctly ascertained to be the marks of our own shoes made eleven months before. The only animals we met with were a fox, a raven, CCorvus Corax,) some ring-plovers, (Charadrius Hiaticula,) snow-buntings, and a Avild bee, (Apis Alpina.J Several tracks of bears and of a cloven-footed animal, probably the rein-deer, were also observed upon the moist ground. Three black whales were seen in the bay, and the crown-bones of several others were lying near the beach. Considerable tufts of moss and of grass occur in this valley, principally in those parts which are calculated to retain the water produced by the melting of the snow. Indeed, moisture alone seems ne- cessary to the growth of a variety of plants which are found in this dreary climate, and of which a detailed account will be given in the Appendix. Mr. Fisher, who had an opportunity of examining some of the fixed rocks, considered them to consist principally of basalt. A great quantity of lime- stone was found in the valley, together with pieces of granite, quartz, feldspar, trap, and sandstone. The latitude observed at the mouth of the stream was 73° 31' 16", and the longitude by the chronometers, 77° 22' 21", the latter differing only 1' 30" to OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. Sfif the eastward of that obtained on the same spot, by No. 509 of Earnshaw, 1819 the preceding year. The dip of the needle was 86° 03' 42", and the variation J^!^ 108° 46' 35", westerly, agreeing nearly with that observed by Lieutenant Hoppner, in 1818. At half-past ten A.M., when we landed, the tide was falling by the shore, and continued to do so till about half an hour before noon ; the surf on the beach, however, did not allow me to determine the time Avith very great precision. By the mean of our observations made now, and in the foregoing year, the time of high water on full and change days, would appear to be about a quarter past eleven. At two P.M., the water had risen two feet and a half, and the whole rise of tide, as nearly as we could judge from the marks on the beach, may be from six to eight feet. The stream certainly came from the northward and westward along the shore of the bay, during the time that the tide was rising ; and Lieut. Beechey observed, that, in running along shore, in a south-easterly direction, the ship seemed to go much faster by the land than she sailed through the water. It is more than probable, therefore, that the flood comes from the north- westward on this particular part of the coast. Near the spot on which we made the observations, a bottle was buried containing an account of our visit, and a pile of stones and earth raised over it. In approaching Possession Bay, the colour of the water was observed to change to a light green, at the distance of two or two and a half miles from the shore, but there was no other appearance of shoal water, and we could find no bottom with sixty and seventy fathoms of line, well within it ; we had four- teen fathoms, on a sandy bottom, at a cable's length from the beach. Having finished our observations, we returned on board, and made all sail for the Sound ; but the wind blowing still from the westward, the progress of the ships was but slow in that direction. The sea was perfectly free from ice, except a single berg, and one or two narrow though heavy streams, which offered, however, little or no obstruction to the navigation. Annexed is an abstract of the Meteorological Journal for the month of July. ABSTRACT of the METEOROLOGICAL JOURNAL kept on board His Majesty's Ship Hecla, at Sea, .- during the Month oi July, 1819. Temperature in shade of Mr Sea Water at the surface. Barometer. Prevailing Winds. Prevailing Weal' Day 1 iMaxi- Mini- Mean. Tempe- rature. Specific Gravity. Tempera- ture >rhen weighed. Masi- Mini- Mean. o 39 + o 34 + 36.33 33.2 1.0260 O 53 inclies. 29.83 inches. 29.78 inches. 29.800 W.S.W. Moderate breezes and fine. 2 37.5 35.5 36.25 33.3 1. 0.-60 53 29.78 29.70 29.753 S.W. Ditto 3 4 5 35 33 33 30 30.5 29 33.33 31.58 30.83 31.5 30 30.8 1.02C0 1.0261 1.0260 53 51 54 29.61 29.42 29.48. 29.10 29.35 29.35 29.302 29.387 29.403 ; S.E. Calm West Moderate and cloudy. Sn' .' and rain at times. Occasional light airs from th northward. Fogffy weather. Light breezes and hazy. 6 38 31 34.42 33.1 1.0253 57 29.54 29.42 29.505 S.W. Liglit breezes and fine. 7 46 34 39.83 35.8 1.0257 57 29.59 29.51 29.550 5 A.M. S.S.E. t P.M. Calm Light airs and fine. Fine weather. 8 40 34 37.75 37.2 1.0260 57 29.68 29.60 29.029 N orth Light airs and cloudy. 9 34 30 32.25 32.7 1.0254 54 29.74 29.69 29.721 N.N.E. Light airs and cloudy, with snow. 10 32 28 30.00 31.5 1.0252 .53.5 29.80 29.75 29.787 N.N.W. Light breezes and foggy 11 32 26 29.50 30.8 1.0256 54 29.77 29.73 29.761 N.W. Ditto. 12 33.5 28 30.50 32.1 1.0252 54 29.66 29.63 29.037 N.N.W. Moderate breezes and foggy. 13 32 31 31.67 33.2 1.0256 55 29.90 29.72 29.829 ' ( A.M. N.N.W. ] [ P.M. Westerly, j Light breezes and foggy. 1 ^* 36.5 28.5 32.83 34.2 1.0256 55 29.90 29.84 29.878 S.S.E. Ditto 15 31 28 29.83 32.5 1.0250 5S.5 29.91 29.81 29.875 N.b.W. Light breezes and hazy. 16 30 27 33.00 34.2 1.0255 59 29.90 29.76 29.852 S.S.E. Light breezes and cloudy. 17 34 31 33.50 32.8 1.0217 5S 29.84 29.71 29.783 West Light breezes and foggy, ^\ ith rain. 18 33 30.5 32.00 32.1 1.0247 56 29.90 29.79 29.827 5 A.M. S.W. \ I P.M.N.N.E. 5 Light breezes and foggy, with snow. 19 34 29 31.00 33 1.0247 56 29.93 29.90 29.912 North Light breezes and foggy, with small snow. 20 30 27 28.50 32.2 1.0250 56 29.84 29.70 29.791 N.N.W. Light breezes and foggy. 21 42 27 37.67 33.8 1.0243 58 29.03 29.56 29.5S8 5 From north round > M™ M™" -^-r^ j4 itwnunient was erecteei I**:Niaj-The. ^liclaiess of the ofy the point at ■ wajj^ty^ CJSccdicu Liddon's *y Cjroppn^ -J Taile lull-& Winter Haib°^ 29 CHAPTER II. ENTRANCE INTO SIR JAMES LANCASTER'S SOUND OF BAFFIN— UNINTER- RUPTED PASSAGE TO THE WESTWARD — DISCOVERY AND EXAMINATION OF PRINCE REGENTS INLET — PROGRESS TO THE SOUTHWARD STOPPED BY ICE — RETURN TO THE NORTHWARD — PASS BARROW's STRAIT, AND ENTER THE POLAR SEA. We were now about to enter and to explore that great sound or inlet which has obtained a degree of celebrity beyond what it might otherwise have been considered to possess, from the very opposite opinions which have been held with regard to it. To us it was peculiarly interesting, as being the point to which our instructions more particularly directed our attention ; and, I may add, what I believe we all felt, it was that point of the voyage which was to determine the success or failure of the expedition, according as one or other of the opposite opinions alluded to should be corroborated. It will readily be conceived, then, how great our anxiety was for a change of the westerly wind and swell, which, on the 1st of August, set down Sir James Lancaster's Sound, and prevented our making much progress. We experienced also another source of anxiety. The relative sailing qualities of the two ships were found to have altered so much, that we were obliged to keep the Hecla under easy sail the whole day, to allow the Griper to keep up with us, although the latter had hitherto kept way with her consort, when sailing by the wind. The ships stretched to the northward across the entrance of the sound, meeting oc- casionally with some loose and heavy streams of ice, and were at noon in lati- tude, by observation, 73° 55' 18", and in longitude, by the chronometers, 77° 40'. Several whales were seen in the course of the day, and Mr. Allison remarked, that this was the only part of Baffin's Bay in which he had ever seen young whales ; for it is a matter of surprise to the whalers in general, that they I8I9. Auffust. Sun. ]. 30 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 1819. seldom or never meet with young ones on this fishery, as they are accustomed Ji^I!^* to do in the seas of Spitzbergen. The Griper continued to detain us so much that I determined on making the best of our way to the westward, that no more time than was necessary might be occupied in the examination of the bottom of Sir James Lancaster's Sound, provided it should be found to be an inlet surrounded by land. I was the more inclined to do this, from the circumstance of the sea being so clear of ice, as to offer no impediment to the navigation, which rendered it next to impossible that the two ships should not meet each other again ; and it seemed to me to be of considerable importance to obtain as early informa- tion as possible whether a passage did or did not exist there, as, in the latter event, we should have to proceed still further to the northward in search of one through some of the other sounds of Baffin; besides, the farther north we had to go, the shorter would the navigable season be to allow us to explore these sounds. On these considerations I ordered the Hecla to be hove to in the evening, and sent Lieutenant Liddon an instruction, with some signals, which might facilitate our meeting in case of fog : and I appointed as a place of rendezvous the meridian of 85° west, and as near the middle of the Sound as circumstances would permit. As soon, therefore, as the boat returned from the Griper, we carried a press of sail, and, in the course of the evening, saw the northern shore of the Sound looming through the clouds which hung over it. Mon. 2. It fell calm on the morning of the 2d, and at nine A.M., we sounded with the deep-sea clamms, and found one thousand and fifty fathoms by the line, on a bottom of mud and small stones ; but I believe the depth of water did not exceed eight or nine hundred fathoms, the ship's drift being considerable on account of the swell. It should be remarked, also, that where the sound- ings exceed five or six hundred fathoms, even in very calm weather, the actual depth must, in the usual way of obtaining it, be a matter of some uncertainty, for the weight of the line causes it to run out with a velocity not perceptibly diminished, long after the lead or the clamms have struck the ground. The clamms being now down, we were about to try the set of the current, by mooring a boat to the line, when the breeze again sprung up from the westward and prevented it. At noon we were in latitude by observation, 74° 30' 03'., and in longitude 78° 01'., Cape Osborn bearing N. 79° W. distant forty-one miles. The weather being clear in the evening, we had the first distinct view of i^-'ez//f' ■yi!y/./'/(,y"r . I'. S6' M .'^ ^l/UZ /^' i7i€ /ii^tiCll'iil cf- >',fl y f 1 §iimilmm- i^w f.j^mj, y^c/yu' //l^ai^te'Tn^?, /^a^lcn^ ^-^. (C? // a7iyg?i^^.a/i^ cfide ./^^^ cr^tf iwiwf"^m iv -r'^ „/->-•"; 'r,„/Mr~mf L, Z^;^ ^/up>v of ^a-i^te, afterwards named by Captain Sabine, Cape Felleoot, which appeared to form the termination of this coast; and as the haze, which still prevailed to the south, prevented our seeing any land in that quarter, and the sea was literally as free from ice as any part of the Atlantic, we began to flatter ourselves that we had fairly entered the Polar sea, and some of the most sanguine among us had even calculated the bearing and distance of Icy Cape, as a matter of no very difficult or improbable accom- plishment. This pleasing prospect was rendered the more flattering by the sea having, as we thought, regained the usual oceanic colour, and by a long swell which was rolling in from the southward and eastward. At six P.M., however, land was reported to be seen a-head. The vexation and anxiety produced on every countenance by such a report, was but too visible, until, on a nearer approach, it was found to be only an island, of no very large extent, and that, on each side of it, the horizon still appeared clear for several points of the compass. More land was also discovered beyond Cape Fellfoot, immediately to the westward of which lies a deep and broad bay, which I named after my friend, Mr. Maxwell, to whose kindness and unre- mitting attention, I am more indebted than it might be proper here to express. At eight P.M., we came to some ice of no great breadth or thickness, ex- tending several miles in a direction nearly parallel to our course ; and as we could see clear water over it to the southward, I was for some time in the \; ^ ,v Gn^iii^a/Uvt c^^Ae C'tuf^i^ {^aA^.m/6 c^^O- ^^ Me G.h>^crz'iv%^ eastern shore, so that by midnight the channel in which we were sailing was narrowed to about five miles. The colour of the water had changed to a very- light green at that distance from the shore ; but we could find no bottom with fifty fathoms of line, and had thirty-five fathoms while rounding a point of ice at three miles' distance from the beach. The weather was beautifully serene and clear, and the sun, for the second time to us this season, just dipped below the northern horizon, and then re-appeared in a few minutes. Sun. 8. A dark sky to the south-west had given us hopes of finding a westerly passage to the south of the ice along which we were now sailing ; more espe- cially as the inlet began to widen considerably as Ave advanced in that di- rection : but at three A.M., on the morning of the 8th, we perceived that the ice ran close in with a point of land bearing S. b. E. from us, and which ap- peared to form the southern extremity of the eastern shore. To this extreme point I gave the name of Cape Kater, in compliment to Captain Henry Kater, one of the Commissioners of the Board of Longitude, to whom science is greatly indebted for his improvements of the pendulum, and the mariner's compass. With the increasing width of the inlet, we had flattered ourselves with in- creasing hopes ; but we soon experienced the mortification of disappointment. The prospect from the crow's nest began to assume a very unpromising ap- pearance, the whole of the western horizon, from north round to S. b. E., being completely covered with ice, consisting of heavy and extensive floes, beyond which no indication of water was visible ; instead of which there was a bright and dazzling ice-blink extending from shore to shore. The western coast of the inlet, however, trended much more to the westward than before, and no land Avas visible to the south-west, though the horizon was so clear in that quarter, that, if any had existed of moderate height, it might have been easily seen at this time, at the distance of ten or twelve leagues. From these circumstances, the impression received at the time was, that the land, both on the eastern and western side of this inlet, would be one day found to consist of islands. As a fresh northerly breeze was drifting the ice rapidly towards Cape Kater, and there appeared to be no passage open between it and that cape, I did not consider it prudent, under present circumstances, to run the ships down to the point, or to attempt to force a passage through the ice, and therefore hauled to the wind with the intention of examining a bay which was abreast of us, and to Avhich I gave the name of Fitzgerald Bay, out of respect for Captain Robert Lewis Fitzgerald, of the royal navy. OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 41 A boat from each ship was prepared to conduct this examination, and we 1819. stood in to drop them in-shore, but found, as we approached, that the bay was ;^)!^' so filled with ice, as to render it impracticable for any boat to land. I there- fore determined, as the season was fast advancing to a close, to lose no time in returning to the northward, in the hope of finding the channel between Prince Leopold's Isles and Maxwell Bay more clear of ice than when we left it, in which case there could be little doubt of our effecting a passage to the westward; whereas, in our present situation, there appeared no prospect of our doing so without risking the loss of more time than I deemed it prudent to spare. I have before observed that the east and west lands which form this grand inlet are probably islands: and, on an inspection of the charts, I think it will also appear highly probable that a communication will one day be found to exist between this inlet and Hudson's Bay, either through the broad and unex- plored channel, called Sir Thomas Rowe's Welcome, or through Repulse Bay, which has not yet been satisfactorily examined. It is also probable, that a channel will be found to exist between the western land and the northern coast of America; in which case the flood-tide which came from the southward may have proceeded round the southern point of the west land out of the Polar sea, part of it setting up the inlet, and part down the Welcome, according to the unanimous testimony of all the old navigators, who have advanced up the latter channel considerably to the northward. The distance which we sailed to the southward in this inlet was about one hundred and twenty miles, Cape Kater being, by our observations, in lat. 71° 53' 30", long. 90° 03' 45"; and I saw no reason to doubt the practi- cability of ships penetrating much farther to the south, by watching the occasional openings in the ice, if the determining the geography of this part of the arctic regions be considered worth the time which must necessarily be occupied in effecting it. The ice which we met with in the southern part of this inlet was much less broken into pieces than that to the northward ; and the floes, some of which not less than nine or ten feet thick, were covered with innumerable little round " hummocks," as they are called by the Greenland seamen, Avhich are perhaps first formed by the drift of the snow in particular situations, and which by alternate thawing and freezing, become as solid and transparent as any other part of the ice. This peculiarity I never remember to have remarked on the floes in Baffin's Bay, on which a carriage might travel without much inconvenience, except 4S VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY H19- that which arises from the numerous pools of water found upon them in s.0-r^' the latter part of the summer. From latitude 73° to the farthest progress made to the southward, we found the soundings remarkably regular in approaching the eastern shore. The colour of the water was always observed to change to a beautiful light green before we could obtain soundings with a line of forty fathoms, which occur generally at the distance of four or five miles from the land; after which the depth decreases so gradually that the lead appears to be a safe guide. The bottom is principally mud, into which the lead sinks deep; but there is also some hard ground, and a few pieces of limestone were occasionally brought up by the lead. The directive power of the magnet seemed to be weaker here than ever; for the north pole of the needle in Captain Kater's steering compass, in which the friction is almost entirely removed by a thread suspension, was observed to point steadily towards the ship's- head, in whatsoever direction the latter was placed. It is probable, therefore, that the magnetic dip would have been found somewhat greater here than at our place of observation on the 7th ; and it was a matter of regret to me that the primary object of the expedition would not allow of another day's detention for the purpose of repeating the magnetic observations on this spot. Mon. 9. As we returned to the northward with a light, but favourable breeze, we found that the ice had approached the eastern shore of the inlet, leaving a much narrower channel than that by which we had entered ; and in some places it stretched completely across to the land on this side, while the opposite coast was still as inaccessible as before. On the evening of the 9th, a circular prismatic halo Avas seen round the sun, with a bright parhelion on each side at the same altitude with the sun. The radius of the circle was 23° 06'. Several black whales, and multitudes of white ones, were seen in the course of the day, also several narwhals and seals, and one bear. There was an iceberg in sight. Tues. 10. On the 10th, the weather was very thick with snow, which was afterwards succeeded by rain and fog. The compasses being useless, and the sun obscured, we had no means of knowing the direction in which we were going, except that we knew the wind had been to the southward before the fog came on, and had found by experience that it always blew directly up or down the inlet, which enabled us to form a tolerably correct judgment of our course. We continued to stand off-and-on near the ice, till the OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 43 evening, when, the fog having cleared away, we bore up to the northward, '^^^■ keeping as near the western shore as the ice would permit ; but at eleven '.^^■^ P.M., we were stopped in our progress by the ice extending to the land on the eastern side of the inlet, which obliged us to haul our wind. This part of the coast is much higher than that farther to the southward, and the soundings near it are also considerably deeper. On the 11th, the weather was so thick with fog and rain, that it was Wed. 11. impossible to ascertain in what direction we were going, which obliged me to make the ships fast to a floe till the weather should clear up. There being abundance of the purest water in pools upon the floe, our supply of this necessary article was completed on board each ship, and in the mean time. Captain Sabine took the opportunity of repeating his observations upon the dip of the magnetic needle, the result of which, being 88° 25' 17 ", served to confirm those made on shore on the 7th. The repetition of such observations, which require considerable care and delicacy, is always satis- factory ; but was particularly so on this occasion from the circumstance already mentioned of having found at some distance from the place of observation on the 7th, a mass of magnetic iron stone, from which, or from other similar substances, it was possible that the needle might have sufiered some disturbance. Captain Sabine also made some observations here on the intensity of the magnetic force, which will be found in the Appendix. In the evening, the boats succeeded in harpooning a narwhal, to the great delight of our Greenland sailors, who take so much pleasure in the sport to which they have been accustomed, that they could with difficulty be restrained at times from striking a whale, though such a frolic would almost inevitably have been attended with the loss of one or more of our lines. A few kittiwakes and arctic gulls were flying about the ice. A breeze sprung up from the northward on the morning of the 12th, but Tburs.l2. the weather was so foggy for some hours that we did not know in what direction it was blowing. As soon as the fog cleared away, so as to enable us to see a mile or two around us, we found that the floe to which we had anchored was drifting fast down upon another body of ice to leeward, threatening to enclose the ships between them. We, therefore, cast off", and made sail, in order to beat to the northward, which we found great difficulty in doing, owing to the quantity of loose ice with which this part of the inlet was now covered. A remarkably thick fog obscured the eastern land from our view this evening at the distance of five or six miles, while the western G2 44 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 1819. coast was distinctly visible at four times that distance. We remarked, in •^^XJ standing off and on, near the main body of the ice, that the clear atmosphere commenced at a short distance from its margin ; so that we were enabled to obtain a few lunar observations near the edge of the ice, while, at the distance ' of a mile to the eastward of it, the sun was altogether obscured by fog. This being the anniversary of the birth-day of His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, it naturally suggested to us the propriety of honouring the large inlet, which we had been exploring, and in which we still were sailing, with the name of Prince Regent's Inlet. Frid. 13. The weather was beautifully calm and clear on the 13th, when, being near an opening in the eastern shore, I took the opportunity of examining it in a boat. It proved to be a bay, a mile wide at its entrance, and three miles deep in E.b.S. direction, having a small but snug cove on the north side, formed by an island, between which and the main land is a bar of rocks, which completely shelters the cove from sea or drift ice. We found the water so deep, that in rowing close along the shore we could seldom get bottom with seven fathoms of line ; and, as time could not be spared to obtain the exact depth, the soundings in the annexed Plan are necessarily very imperfect. The cliffs on the south side of this bay, to which I gave the name of Port Bowen, after Captain James Bowen, one of the Commis- sioners of His Majesty's navy, resemble, in many places, ruined towers and battlements ; and fragments of the rocks were constantly falling from above. At the head of the bay is an extensive piece of low, flat ground, intersected by numerous rivulets, which, uniting at a short distance from the beach, formed a deep and rapid stream, near the mouth of which we landed. This spot was, I think, the most barren I ever saw, the ground being almost entirely covered with small pieces of slaty limestone, among which no vegetation appeared for more than a mile, to which distance Mr. Ross and myself walked inland, following the banks of the stream. Among the fragments, we picked up one piece of limestone, on which was the impression of a fossil-shell. We saw here a great number of young black guillemots, (Colymbus Grylle,) and a flock of ducks, which we supposed to be of the eider species. The latitude observed at the mouth of the stream was 73° 12' 11", and the longitude, by chronometers, 89° 02' 08". The variation of the needle, observed in the morning, at three or four miles' distance from the land, was 114° 16' 43" westerly. From twenty minutes past eleven till a quarter after OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. M twelve, the tide rose by the shore six inches, and the high-water mark was 1819. between two and three feet above this : but we were not long enough on "^^^ii^' shore to form a correct judgment of the time at which high water takes place. About three-quarters of a mile to the southward of Port Bowen is another small bay, which we had not time to examine. Soon after I returned on board, a light breeze from the southward enabled us to steer towards Prince Leopold's Islands, which, however, we found to be more encumbered with ice than before, as we could not approach them so near as at first by three or four miles. The narwhals were here very numerous ; these animals appear fond of remaining with their backs exposed above the surface of the water, in the same manner as the whale, but for a much longer time, and we frequently also observed their horns erect, and quite stationary for several minutes together. Three or four miles to the northward of Port Bowen we discovered another opening, having every appearance of a harbour, with an island near the entrance ; I named it after Captain Samuel Jackson, of the Royal Navy. The whole of the 14th was occupied in an unsuccessful attempt to find an Sat. 14. opening in the ice to the westward, which remained perfectly close and compact, with a bright ice-blink over it. Our latitude at noon was 73° 35' 30 ", longitude 89° 01' 20", being in two hundred and ten fathoms of water, on a muddy bottom. Some water, brought up in Doctor Marcet's bottle from one hundred and eighty-five fathoms, was at the temperature of 34°, that of the surface being the same, and of the air 39°. The ice continued in the same unfavourable state on the 15th ; and being Sun. 15. desirous of turning to some account this vexatious but unavoidable detention, I left the ship in the afternoon, accompanied by Captain Sabine and Mr. Hooper, in order to make some observations on shore, and directed Lieute- nant Liddon to send a boat from the Griper for the same purpose. We landed in one of the numerous valleys, or ravines, which occur on this part of the coast, and which, at a few miles' distance, very much resemble bays, being bounded by high hills, which have the appearance of bluff headlands. We found the water very deep close to the beach, which is composed of rounded limestones, and on which there was no surf ; we then ascended, with some difficulty, the hill on the south side of the ravine, which is very steep, and covered with innumerable detached blocks of limestone, some of which are constantly rolling down from above, and which afford a very insecure footing. From the top of this hill, which is about six or seven hundred feet .46 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 1819. above the level of the sea, and which commands an extensive view to the wes.t- Ji^^," ward, the prospect was by no means favourable to the immediate accomplish- ment of our object. No water could be seen over the ice to the north-west, and a bright and dazzling blink covered the whole space comprised between the islands and the north shore. It was a satisfaction, however, to find that no land appeared which was likely to impede our progress ; and we had been too much accustomed to the obstruction occasioned by ice, and too well aware of the suddenness with which that obstruction is often removed, to be at all discouraged by present appearances. On the top of this hill we deposited a bottle, containing a short notice of our visit, and raised over it a small mound of stones; of these we found no want, for the surface was covered with small pieces of schistose limestone, and nothing like soil or vegetation could be seen. We found a great quan- tity of madreporite among the lime, and at the foot of the hill I met with one large piece, of the basaltiform kind. Several pieces of flint were also picked up on the beach. The insignificance of the stream which here emptied itself into the sea, formed, as usual, a striking contrast with the size of the bed through which it flowed, the latter being several hundred feet deep, and two or three hundred yards wide. The latitude of this place is 73° 33'' 15" N., and the longitude by our chro- nometers, 88° 18' 17"; the dip of the magnetic needle was 87"^ 35'.95, and its variation 115° 37' 12" westerly. The tide was found to rise three feet from ten minutes past three till seven P.M. ; during the whole of which time the stream, within one or two miles of the shore, was carrying the loose pieces of ice to the southward, at the rate of about a mile and-a-half an hour. By observing the ships, however, at five miles' distance in the offing, I had reason to believe that they were set in the contrary direction, and that the current observed by us in-shore, was only an eddy, and not the true direction of the flood-tide. The time of high water here, on full and change days of the moon, will probably be about eleven o'clock. A very large black whale was seen near the beach, and a great number of seals, though seldom more than two of the latter together. We saw one, of the kind called by the sailors, " saddle- back," (Phoca GrcBiilandica.) Mon. 16. The wind was light on the 16th, with cloudy weather, and occasional fogs, and we scarcely altered our position, being hemmed in by ice or land in almost every direction. At five P.M., it being quite calm, we had a good opportunity of trying the set of the tide, which, by the preceding day's OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. -ff observations, we knew to be rising at this time by the shore. A small boat 1819. was moored to the bottom, which consisted of soft mud, in one hundred and ^J^X!^ ninety-one fathoms, by a deep-sea lead weighing one hundred and fifty pounds, and a current was found to be setting to the N.N.W., at the rate of a quarter of a mile an hour. This served to confirm the remark I had made the preceding day respecting the drift of the ships in the ofiing ; and, unless there be what seamen call a " tide and half tide," would appear to establish the fact of the flood-tide coming from the southward in this part of Prince Regent's Inlet. On the 17th, we had a fresh breeze, from the S.S.W., with so thick a fog, Tues. 17. that in spite of the most unremitting attention to the sails and the steerage, the ships were constantly receiving heavy shocks from the loose masses of ice with which the sea was covered, and which, in the present state of the weather, could not be distinguished at a sufficient distance to avoid them. On the weather clearing up in the afternoon, we saw, for the first time, a remarkable blufi^ headland, which forms the north-eastern point of the en- trance into Prince Regent's Inlet, and to which I gave the name of Cape York, after His Royal Highness the Duke of York. A little to the east- ward of Cape Fellfoot, we observed six remarkable stripes of snow, near the top of the cliff', being very conspicuous at a great distance, when viewed from the southward. These stripes, which are foniied by the drift of snow between the buttress-like projections before described, and which remained equally conspicuous on our return the following year, have probably at all times much the same appearance, at least about this season of the year, and may, on this account, perhaps, be deemed worthy of notice, as a landmark. At half-past ten A.M., on the 18th, it being quite calm, the small boat was Wed. 18. moored to the bottom, in two hundred and ten fathoms, by which means the current was ascertained to be setting W.S.W., at the rate of a mile and-a-half an hour ; and, from our preceding observations on the time of the tides on shore in this neighbourhood, it can scarcely be doubted that this was the ebb-tide. Mr. Crawford, the Greenland mate of the Hecla, being in quest of a narwhal in one of the boats, could not resist the temptation of striking a fine black whale, which rose close to him, and which soon ran out two lines of one hundred and forty fathoms each, when, after towing the boat some distance, the harpoon fortunately drew, and thus saved our lines. 48 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 1819. There being still no prospect of getting a single mile to the westward in ^^^^ the neighbourhood of Prince Leopold's Islands, and a breeze having freshened up from the eastward in the afternoon, I determined to stand over once more towards the northern shore, in order to try what could there be done towards effecting our passage ; and at nine P.M., after beating for several hours among floes and streams of ice, we got into clear water near that coast, where we found some swell from the eastward. There was just light enough at midnight to enable us to read and write in the cabin. Thur. 19. The wind and sea increased on the 19th, with a heavy fall of snow, which, together with the uselessness of the compasses, and the narrow space in which we were working between the ice and the land, combined to make our situation for several hours a very unpleasant one. At two P.M., the weather being still so thick, that we could at times scarcely see the ship's length a-head, we suddenly found ourselves close under the land, and had not much room to spare in wearing round. We stood ofF-and-on during the rest of the day, measuring our distance by Massey's patent log, an invaluable machine on this and many other occasions ; and in the course of the afternoon, found ourselves opposite to an inlet, which I named after my relation. Sir Benjamin Hobhouse. The snow was succeeded by rain at night ; after which the wind fell, and the weather became clear, so that, on Frid. 20. the moming of the 20th, when we found ourselves off Stratton Inlet, we were enabled to bear up along shore to the westward. The points of ice led us occasionally within two miles of the land, which allowed us to look into several small bays or inlets, with which this coast appears in- dented, but which it would require more time than we could afford, thoroughly to survey or examine. The remarkable structure of this land, which I have before attempted to describe, is peculiarly striking about Cape Fellfoot, where the horizontal strata very much resemble two parallel tiers of batteries, placed at regular intervals from the top to the bottom of the cliff, affording a grand and imposing appearance. There is a low point running off some distance from Cape Fellfoot. which is not visible till approached within five or six miles. We passed along this point at the distance of four miles, finding no bottom with from fifty to sixty-five fathoms of line. Maxwell Bay isa very noble one, having several islands in it, and a number of openings on its northern shore, which we could not turn aside to explore. It was, however, quite free from ice, and might easily have been examined, had it Sat. 21. OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 40 been our object to do so, and time would have permitted. A remarkable headland, on the western side, I named after Sir William Herschel. August. At six P.M., when we had passed to the westward of Maxwell Bay, the wind failed us, and the opportunity was immediately taken to try the current by mooring the small boat to the bottom in one hundred and fifty fathoms. The tide was found to set W. 5 N., at the rate of a quarter of a mile per hour ; and at nine o'clock, when we tried it again in a similar manner, there was still a slight stream perceptible, setting in the same direction. The mud and small black stones, brought up from the bottom, consisted entirely of limestone, effervescing strongly with an acid. On the 2Ist we had nothing to impede our progress but the want of wind, the great opening, through which we had hitherto proceeded from Baffin's Bay being now so perfectly clear of ice, that it was almost impossible to believe it to be the same part of the sea, which, but a day or two before, had been completely covered with floes to the utmost extent of our view. In the forenoon, beino- off a headland, which was named after Captain Thomas Hurd, Hydrographer to the Admiralty, we picked up a small piece of wood, which appeared to have been the end of a boat's yard, and which caused sundry amusing speculations among our gentlemen ; some of whom had just come to the very natural conclusion, that a ship had been here before us, and that, therefore, we were aot entitled to the honour of the first discovery of that part of the sea on which we were now sailing ; when a stop was suddenly put to this and other ingenious inductions by the information of one of the seamen, that he had dropped it out of his boat a fortnight before. I could not get him to recollect exactly the day on which it had been so dropped, but what he stated was suf- ficient to convince me, that we were not at that time more than ten or twelve leagues from our present situation ; perhaps not half so much ; and that, therefore, here was no current setting constantly in any one direction. A bay, to the northward and westward of Cape Hurd, was called Rigby Bay. At nine P.M., the wind being light from the northward, with hazy weather, and some clouds, the electrometer chain was hoisted up to the masthead ; but no sensible effect was produced, either upon the pith-balls or the gold-leaf. A thick fog came on at night, which, together with the lightness of the wind, and the caution necessary in navigating an unknown sea under such circumstances, rendered our progress to the westward ex- tremely slow, though we had fortunately no ice to obstruct us. The Sun. 2-2. 50 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY jgjg narwhals were blowing about us in all directions, and two walruses with a August, young one were seen upon a piece of ice. The fog clearing up on the following day, we found ourselves abreast a bay, to which the name of RadstockBay was subsequently given by Lieut. Liddon's desire, in compliment to the Earl of Radstock. This bay is formed by a point of land, on the eastern side, which I named Cape Eardley Wilmot ; and on the western, by a bluff headland, which was called after Captain Tristram Robert Ricketts, of the Royal Navy. In the centre of Radstock bay, lies an insular-looking piece of land, which received the name of Caswall's Tower. We now also caught a glimpse of more land to the southward ; but, owing to a thick haze which hung over the horizon in that quarter, the continuity of land on a great part of that coast, to the westward of Cape Clarence, remained, for the present, undetermined. Immediately to the westward of us, we discovered more land, occupying several points of the horizon, Avhich renewed in us considerable appre- hension, lest we should still find no passage open into the Polar sea. As we advanced slowly to the westward, the land on which Cape Ricketts stands, ap- peared to be nearly insular ; and, immediately to the westward of it, we disco- vered a considerable opening, which we called Gascoyne's Inlet, after General Gascoyne, and which I should have been glad to examine in a boat, had time permitted. In the afternoon, the weather became very clear and fine, the wind being light from the westward. As this latter circumstance rendered our progress very slow, the opportunity was taken to despatch the boats on shore, for the purpose of making observations ; and at the same time, a boat from each ship, under the respective command of Lieutenants Beechey and Hoppner, was sent to examine a bay, at no great distance to the northward and westward of us. The first party landed at the foot of a bluff headland, which forais the eastern point of this bay, and which I named after my friend Mr. Richard Riley, of the Admiralty. They had scarcely landed ten minutes, when a fresh breeze unexpectedly sprung up from the eastward, and their signal of recall was immediately made. They were only, therefore, enabled to obtain a part of the intended observations, by which the latitude was found to be 74° 39' 51", the longitude 91° 47" 36".8, and the variation of the magnetic needle 128° 58' 07" westerly. The cliffs on this part of the coast were observed to consist almost entirely of secondary limestone, in which fossils were abun- dantly found. There was little or no vegetation in those parts which ouir gentlemen had an opportunity of examining during their short excursion ; but OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE'. M as a quantity of the dung of rein-deer was brought on board, the interior of 181^. the country cannot be altogether unproductive. One or two specimens of the ^^^li^ silvery gull, fLarus Argentatus,) and of the Lams Glaucus, with the young of the latter alive, were obtained by Captain Sabine ; and five black whales were seen near the beach. Lieutenant Beechey found that the land, which at this time formed the western extreme, and which lies on the side of the bay, opposite to Cape Riley, was an island; to which I, therefore, gave the name of Beechey Island, out of respect to Sir William Beechey. Immediately off Cape Riley, runs a low jjoint, which had some appearance of shoal-water near it, there being a strong ripple on the surface ; but Lieutenant Hoppner re- ported, that he could find no bottom with thirty-nine fathoms, at the distance of two hundred yards from it. As soon as the boats returned, all sail was made to the westward, where the prospect began to wear a more and more interesting appearance. We soon perceived, as we proceeded, that the land, along which we were sailing, and which, with the exception of some small inlets, had appeared to be hitherto continuous from Baffin's Bay, began now to trend much to the northward, beyond Beechey Island, leaving a large open space be- tween that coast and the distant land to the westward, which now appeared like an island, of which the extremes to the north and south Were distinctly visible. The latter was a remarkable headland,having at its extremity two small table hills, somewhat resembling boats turned bottom upwards, and was named Cape Hotham, after Rear- Admiral the Honourable Sir Henry Hotham, one of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. At sunset we had a clear and extensive view to the northward, between Cape Hotham and the eastern land. On the latter several headlands were discovered and named ; between the northernmost of these, called Cape Bowden, and the island to the west- ward, there was a channel of more than eight leagues in width, in which neither land nor ice could be seen from the mast-head. To this noble channel I gave the name of Wellington, after his Grace the Master-General of the Ordnance. The arrival off this grand opening was an event for which we had long been looking with much anxiety and impatience ; for, the con- tinuity of land to the northward had always been a source of uneasiness to us, principally from the possibility that it might take a turn to the southward and unite with the coast of America. The appearance of this broad opening, free from ice, and of the land on each side of it, more especially 52 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 1819. that on the west, leaving scarcely a doubt on our minds of the latter being an Ji^Iilj island, relieved us from all anxiety on that score ; and every one felt that we were now finally disentangled from the land which forms the western side of Baffin's Bay ; and that, in fact, we had actually entered the Polar sea. Fully im- pressed with this idea, I ventured to distinguish themagnificentopeningthrough which our passage had been effected from Baffin's bay to Wellington channel, by the name of Barrow's Strait, after my friend, Mr. Barrow, Secretary of the Admiralty ; both as a private testimony of my esteem for that gentleman, and as a public acknowledgment due to him for his zeal and exertions in the promotion of Northern Discovery. To the land on which Cape Hotham is situated, and whicl^ is the easternmost of the group of islands,) as we found them to be by subsequent discovery,) in the Polar sea, I gave the name of CoRNWALLis Island, after Admiral the Honourable Sir William Cornwallis, my first naval friend and patron ; and an inlet, seven miles to the northward of Cape Hotham, was called Barlow Inlet, as a testimony of my respect for Sir Robert Barlow, one of the Commissioners of His Majesty's navy. Though two-thirds of the month of August had now elapsed, I had every reason to be satisfied with the progress which we had hitherto made. I cal- culated upon the sea being still navigable for six weeks to come, and pro- bably more if the state of the ice would permit us to edge away to the south- ward in our progress westerly: our prospects, indeed, were truly exhila- rating ; the ships had suffered no injury ; we had plenty of provisions ; crews in high health and spirits ; a sea, if not open, at least navigable ; and a zealous and unanimous determination in both officers and men to ac- complish, by all possible means, the grand object on which we had the hap- piness to be employed. OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 53 CHAPTER III. FAVOURABLE APPEARANCES OF AN OPEN WESTERLY PASSAGE — LAND TO THE NORTHWARD, A SERIES OF ISLANDS — GENERAL APPEARANCE OF THEM — MEET WITH SOME OBSTRUCTION FROM LOW ISLANDS SURROUNDED WITH ICE — REMAINS OP ESQUIMAUX HUTS, AND NATURAL PRODUCTIONS OF BYAM MARTIN ISLAND TEDIOUS NAVIGATION FROM FOGS AND ICE — DIFFICULTY OF STEERING A PROPER COURSE ARRIVAL AND LANDING ON MELVILLE ISLAND — PROCEED TO THE WESTWARD, AND REACH THE MERIDIAN OF 110° W. LONG., THE FIRST STAGE IN THE SCALE OF REWARDS GRANTED BY ACT OF PARLIAMENT. 1819. A CALM which prevailed during the night kept us nearly stationary off August. Beechey Island till three A.M. on the 23d, when a fresh breeze sprung up Mon. 23. from the northward, and all sail was made for Cape Hotham, to the south- ward of which it was now my intention to seek a direct passage towards Behring's Strait. Wellington channel, to the northward of us, was as open and navigable, to the utmost extent of our view, as any part of the Atlantic, but as it lay at right angles to our course, and there was still an opening at least ten leagues wide to the southward of Cornwallis Island, I could fortu- nately have no hesitation in deciding which of the two it was our business to pursue. If, however, the sea to the westward, which was our direct course, had been obstructed by ice, and the wind had been favourable, such was the tempt- ing appearance of Wellington channel, in which there was no visible impedi- ment, that I should probably have been induced to run through it, as a degree more or less to the northward made little or no difference in the distance we had to run to Icy Cape. The open channel to the westward did not, how- 54f VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 1819. ever, reduce me to this dilemma. It is impossible to conceive any thing J^^^' more animating than the quick and unobstructed run with which we were favoured, from Beechey Island across to Cape Hotham. Most m«n have, probably, at one time or another, experienced that elevation of spirits which is usually produced by rapid motion of any kind; and it will readily be con- ceived how much this feeling was heightened in us, in the few instances in which it occurred, by the slow and tedious manner in which the greater part of our navigation had been perfonned in these seas. Our disappointment may therefore be imagined, when, in the midst of these favourable appear- ances, and of the hope with which they had induced us to flatter our- selves, it was suddenly and unexpectedly reported from the crow's- nest, that a body of ice lay directly across the passage between Cornwallis Island and the land to the southward. As we approached this obstruction, which commenced about Cape Hotham, we found that there was, for the present, no opening in it through which a passage could be attempted. After lying to for an hour, however, Lieutenant Beechey discovered from the crow's-nest, that one narrow neck appeared to consist of loose pieces of heavy ice detached from the main floes which composed the barrier, and that, beyond this, there was a considerable extent of open water. The Hecla was immediately pushed into this part of the ice, and, after a quarter of an hour's " boring," during which the breeze had, as usual, nearly deserted us, suc- ceeded in forcing her way through the neck. The Griper followed in the opening which the Hecla had made, and we continued our course to the westward, having once more a navigable sea before us. We now remarked, that a very decided change had taken place in the character of the land to the northward of us since leaving Beechey Island ; the coast near the latter being bold and precipitous next the sea, with very deep water close to it, while the shores of Cornwallis Island rise with a gradual ascent from a beach which appeared to be composed of sand. During the forenoon we passed several riplings on the surface of the water, which were probably occasioned by the set of the tides round each end of Corn- wallis Island, as we found a depth of ninety-five fathoms. An opening was seen in the southern land, which I distinguished by the name of Cunning- ham Inlet, after Captain Charles Cunningham of the Royal Navy, resident Commissioner at Deptford and Woolwich, to whose kindness and attention . we were much indebted during the equipment of the ships for this service. A bluff' and remarkable cape, which forms the eastern point of Cunningham OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 55 Inlet obtained, by Lieutenant Hoppner's desire, the name of Cape Gifford, 1819. out of respect to his friend, Mr. Gifford, a gentleman well known and highly ^^^^' respected, as he deserves to be, in the literary world. To the eastward of Cape Gifford, a thick haze covered the horizon, and it prevented us from seeing more land in that direction ; so that its continuity from hence to Cape Clarence still remained undetermined, while, to the westward, it seemed to be terminated rather abruptly by a headland, which I distinguished by the name of Cape Bunny. At noon, we had reached the longitude of 94° 43' 15", the latitude, by observation, being 74° 20' 52", when we found that the land which then formed the western extreme on this side was a second island, which, after Rear-Admiral Edavard Griffith, I called Griffith Island. Imme- diately opposite to this, upon Cornwallis Island, is a conspicuous headland, which, at some distance, has the appearance of being detached, but which, on a nearer approach, was found to be joined by a piece of low land. To this I gave the name of Cape Martyr, after a much esteemed friend. At two P.M., having reached the longitude of 95° 07', we came to some heavy and extensive floes of ice, which obliged us to tack, there being no passage between them. We beat to the northward during the whole of the after- noon, with a fresh breeze from that quarter, in the hope of finding a narrow channel under the lee of Griffith Island. In this expectation we were, however, disappointed, for, at eight P.M., we were near enough to perceive not only that the ice was quite close to the shore, but that it appeared not to have been detached from it at all during this season. We, therefore, bore up, and ran again to the southward, where the sea by this time had become rather more clear along the lee margin of a large field of ice extending far to the westward. The ice in this neighbourhood was covered with innumerable " hummocks," such as I have before endea- voured to describe as occurring in the southern part of Prince Regent's Inlet, and the floes were from seven to ten feet in thickness. It may bete be remarked, as a fact not altogether unworthy of notice, that, from the time of our entering Sir James Lancaster's Sound, till we had passed the meridian of 92°, near which the northern shore of Barrow's Strait ceases to be continuous, the wind, as is commonly the case in inlets of this kind, had invariably blown in a direction nearly due east or due west, being that of the shores of the strait. When, therefore, we experienced to-day, for the first time, a fresh breeze blowing steadily from the northward, or 5S VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 1819. directly off the land, we were willing, though perhaps without much reason, v,*^^ to construe this circumstance into an additional indication of the shores near which we were now sailing being altogether composed of islands, down the channels between which the wind blew, and that therefore no obstruction from continued land was any longer to be apprehended. After various unsuccessful attempts to get through the ice which now lay in our way, we were at length so fortunate as to accomplish this object by " boring" through several heavy " streams," which occasioned the ships to receive many severe shocks ; and, at half an hour before midnight, we were enabled to pursue our course, through "sailing ice,'' to the westward. Tues. 24. A fog came on, on the morning of the 24th, which once more reduced us to the necessity of depending on the steadiness of the wind for a knowledge of the direction in which we were steering, or of having recourse to the unpleasant alternative of heaving to, till the weather should become clear. The former Avas, of course, preferred, and we pushed on with all the canvass which the Griper's bad sailing would allow us to carry, using the very necessary precaution of keeping the hand-leads constantly going. We passed one field of ice, of immense length, the distance which we ran along it, without meeting a single break in it, being, according to the report of the officers, from eight to ten miles, and its general thickness about eight feet. In this manner we had sailed between fifteen and twenty miles in a tolerably clear sea, when, on the fog clearing away, at seven A.M., we found, by the bearings of the sun, that the wind had not deceived us, and that we had made nearly all westing during the night's run. We also saw land to the northward of us, at the distance of nine or ten miles, appearing like an island, which it afterwards proved to be, and which I named after Viscount Lowther, one of the lords of His Majesty's treasury. Shortly after, we also saw land to the south, so that we could not but consider ourselves fortunate in having steered so directly in the proper course for sailing in this channel during the continuance of the foggy weather. The land to the southward was high and bold, being terminated to the eastward by a bluff headland, which I named after Mr. Walker, of the Hydrographical Office, at the Admiralty. Immediately at the back of Cape Walker, or to the southward of it, the loom of land was distinctly visible, but, from the state of Ihe weather, we could not ascertain its extent. We here obtained soundings in sixty-three fathoms, on g, bottom of sand and small stones, with some pieces of coral. OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. -.S^ The wind, drawing more to the westward soon after the clearing up of 1819. the fog, obliged us to beat to windward during the rest of the day between ^^^li^' the two lands, that to the southward being loaded with ice, while the shores of Lowther Island were perfectly clear and accessible. As we stood in towards the south-west point of the island, in the afternoon, we found the water deepen from sixty-five to seventy-six fathoms, the latter soundings being at the distance of two miles and a half from the shore : and, in standing off again to the south-westward, came rather unexpectedly to a low sandy-looking island, having a great deal of heavy ice aground near it; to this I gave the name of Young's Island, after Dr. Thomas Young, Secretary to the Board of Longitude. We tacked in thirty-four fathoms at three miles' distance from this island; and, from the quantity of heavy ice near it, which is a never-failing beacon in these seas, it seems more than probable that it is surrounded by shoal water. It now became evident that all the land around us consisted of islands, and the comparative shoaliness of the water made great caution necessary in pro- ceeding, surrounded as we were by both land and ice in almost every direction. In the course of the evening, more land came in sight to the northward ; but the distance was at this time too great to enable us to distinguish its situation and extent. Early on the following morning, Lieutenant Beechey discovered, from the Wed. 25. crow's nest, a second low island, resembling Young's Island in size and appearance, and lying between three and four leagues to the northward of it. I gave it the name of Davy Island, after Sir Humphry Davy, now President of the Royal Society. The nearest land which we had seen to the northward, on the preceding evening, proved to be another island, four or five miles long from east to west, which I distinguished by the name of Garrett Island, out of respect to my much-esteemed friend Captain Henry Garrett, of the royal navy, to whose kind offices and friendly attention during the time of our equipment, I must ever feel highly indebted. The land to the northward of Garrett Island was found to be another island of considerable extent, having, towards its eastern end, a remark- able peaked hillock, very conspicuous when seen from the southward. I named this Bathurst Island, in honour of the Earl of Bathurst, one of His Majesty's principal secretaries of state, and a bay near its south-eastern point, was called Bedford Bay. The islands which we had discovered during this day's navigation, among 58 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 1819. which I have not ventured to include the land to the southward of Lowther ^^^li^' Island, of which we obtained a very imperfect view, are generally of a moderate height, not exceeding perhaps four or five hundred feet above the level of the sea. With the exception of some parts of Bathurst Island, which have a more rugged aspect and which rise to a greater elevation than this, we found them entirely clear of snow, and when the sun was shining upon them^ they exhibited a brown appearance. In standing in towards Garrett Island, the water was found to deepen from forty to sixty-five, seventy, and eighty fathoms ; the latter soundings occurring at two miles distance from the south-eastern point of the island, where we suddenly met with a strong rippling on the surface of the water : as no irregularity could be found in the bottom, this rippling was perhaps occasioned by the meeting of the tides in this place. Thur. 26. We had seen no whales nor narwhals since leaving Cape Riley on the morning of the 23d ; and it was now remarked, not without some degree of un- pleasant feeling, that not a single bird, nor any other living creature, had for the whole of this day made its appearance. It was, however encouraging to find, while advancing to the westward, as fast as an unfavourable Avind would permit, that, although the sea beyond us was for the most part covered with a compact and undivided body of ice, yet that a channel of sufficient breadth was still left open for us between it and the shore, under the lee of Bathurst Island. The ice here consisted almost entirely of fields, the limits of which were not visible from the mast head, and which were covered with the same kind of hummocks as before described. The westernmost land now in sight was a cape, which I named after Vice-Admiral Sir George Cockburn, one of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. This cape appeared, during the day, to be situated on a small island detached from Bathurst Island ; but^ on approaching it towards evening, we found them to be connected by a low sandy beach or isthmus, over which some high and distant hills were seen to the north-westward. An opening in the land near this beach, and which had very much the appearance of a river, with some rocky islets at its mouth, w£is named Allison Inlet, after the Greenland master of the Hecla. The water became very light coloured as we stood in towards this part of the coast, and we tacked in twenty-six fathoms, at six or seven miles' distance from it, continuing to beat to the westward. We gained so little ground during the night, and in the early part of tlie following morning, notwithstanding the smoothness of the water, and a fine f J,?/u' .y/r/T?,?///, /;-,/> w/.<^- V/. Yt/. '■ / Wf^^.^^^^"^^^^^^^ C^cL^'^'i^/{^ C^i^.^'er. /ea-yt^ ^A^^3^° /6 dP. " _^iiea^ (7?'i- ^/ja/:d^c/j't' ^ /u/^n^z^ . ^e&cJi^ dtl. Z. Cla7'k scu^. Zcndc?i,Tii6lisked fy LMuTi-ajy, 2tf22. OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 59 working breeze, that I am confident there must have been a tide setting against us off Cape Cockburn ; but, as it was of material importance to get round this headland, before a change of wind should set the ice in upon the shore, I did not deem it proper to heave-to, for the purpose of trying the direction in which it was running. After three A.M., the ships began to make much better way, so that I considered it likely that the tide had slackened between three and four o'clock ; and if so, the time of slack water at this place would be, on full and change days, a few minutes after eleven : and as this time, with the proper correction applied, seems to correspond pretty accurately with that of high water at the other places, to the eastward and westward, where we had an opportunity of observing it, we could scarcely doubt that it was the flood-tide which had now been setting against us from the westward. From these circumstances, I have ventured to mark the time of high water, and the direction of the flood-tide, upon the chart, both being confessedly subject to correction by future navigators. Several seals were here seen upon the ice, and a single bird with a long bill, resembling a curlew. While beating round Cape Cockburn, our soundings were from thirty-three to twenty-one fathoms, on a bottom of small broken shells and coral ; and some star-fish (Asterias) came up on the lead. After rounding this headland, the wind favoured us by coming to the S.S.W. ; and as we stood on to the west- ward, the water deepened very gradually till noon, when being in latitude, by observation, 75° 01' 51", and longitude, by chronometers, 101° 39' 09", we sounded in sixty-eight fathoms, on a bottom of mud of a peculiar flesh- colour. The high land, which had been seen on the preceding evening, over the low beach to the eastward of Cape Cockburn, now appeared also to form a part of Bathurst Island, which we afterwards found to be the case, (on our return in 1820,) the intermediate parts of the land being too low to be clearly distinguished at our present distance. The land to the westward of Cape Cockburn sweeps round into a large bay, which I named after Vice-Admiral Sir Graham Moore. The weather was at this time remarkably serene and clear, and, although we saw a line of ice to the southward of us, lying in a direction nearly east and west, or parallel to the course on which we were steering, and some more land appeared to the westward, yet the space of open water was still so broad, and the prospect from the mast-head, upon the whole, so flattering, that I thought the chances of our separation had now become greater 60 VOYAGE FOE THE DISCOVERY 1819. than before; and I therefore considered it right to furnish Lieutenant Liddon K^.-^J with fresh instructions, and to appoint some new place of rendezvous, in case of unavoidable separation from the Hecla. A boat Avas, therefore, dropped on board the Griper for that purpose, without her heaving-to ; and the same opportunity was taken to obtain a comparison between our chronometers. About seven P.M., we were sufficiently near to the western land, to ascertain that it was part of another island, which I named after Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Byam Martin, Comptroller of His Majesty's navy; and by eight o'clock we perceived that the body of ice to the southward, along which we had been sailing, took a turn to the north, and stretched quite in to the shore, near a low point, off which a great quantity of heavy ice was aground. At ten o'clock, after having had a clear view of the ice and of the land about sunset; and finding that there was at present no passage to the westward, we hauled off to the south-east, in the hope of finding some opening in the ice to the southward, by which we might get round in the desired di- rection. We were encouraged in this hope by a dark " water-sky" to the southward ; but, after running along the ice till half-past eleven, without perceiving any opening, we again bore-up to return towards the island. There was in this neighbourhood, a great deal of that particular kind of ice, called by the sailors " dirty ice," on the surface of which were strewed sand, stones, and in some instances, moss ; ice of this kind must, of course, at one time or other, have been in close contact with the land. On one of these pieces, towards which the Hecla was standing, a little sea was observed break- ing ; and, on a nearer approach, it so exactly resembled a rock above water, that I thought it prudent to heave all the sails aback, till a boat had been sent to examine it. We saw several fulmar petrels, and one or two seals, in the course of this day's run. Sat. 28. As we approached the south point of the island, to which I gave the name of Cape Gillman, out of respect to the memory of the late Sir John Gillman, we found the ice in the same position as before ; and I therefore hauled to the north-east, with the intention of attempting a passage round the north side of the island. In standing in, towards Cape Gillman, our soundings gradually decreased from eighty to twenty-three fathoms, the latter depth occurring at the distance of two to four miles from the shore. At ten A.M., the wind being very light from the S.S.E., I despatched Captain Sabine and Mr. Ross, accompanied by Messrs. Edwards and Fisher, to the eastern point of the island, which we were about to round in the ships, in order to OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 61 make the necessary observations, and to examine the natural productions 1819. of the shore. Our latitude at noon was 75° 03' 12", long. 103° 44' 37", and J^' the depth of water forty fathoms. A thick fog came on in the afternoon, soon after the boat had landed, which made me apprehensive that she would not easily find her way back to the ship. We continued to stand ofF-and-on by the lead, which seems a very safe guide on this coast, firing guns frequently till five P.M., when we were not sorry to hear our signals answered by musquets from the boat. The gentlemen reported, on their return, that they had landed on a sandy beach, near the east point of the island, which they found to be more productive, and altogether more interesting than any other part of the shores of the Polar regions which we had yet visited. The remains of Esquimaux habitations were found in four different places. Six of these, which Captain Sabine had an opportunity of examining, and which are situated on a level sandy bank, at the side of a small ravine near the sea, are described by him as consisting of stones rudely placed in a circular, or rather an elliptical, form. They were from seven to ten feet in diameter ; the broad, flat sides of the stones standing vertically, and the whole structure, if such it may be called, being exactly similar to that of the summer huts of the Esquimaux, which we had seen at Hare Island, the preceding year. Attached to each of them was a smaller circle, generally four or five feet in diameter, which had probably been the fire-place. The small circles were placed indifferently, as to their direction from the huts to which they belonged ; and from the moss and sand which covered some of the lower stones, particularly those which composed the flooring of the huts, the whole en- campment appeared to have been deserted for several years. Very recent traces of the rein-deer and musk-ox were seen in many places ; and a head of the latter, with several rein-deers' horns, was brought on board. A few patches of snow remained in sheltered situations; the ravines, however, which were numerous, bore the signs of recent and considerable floods, and their bottoms were swampy, and covered with very luxuriant moss, and other vegetation, the character of which differed very little from that of the land at the bottom of Possession Bay. The basis of the island is sandstone, of which by far the greater part of the mineralogical specimens brought on board consisted ; besides these, some rich granite and red feldspar were met with, together with some other substances which are described by Mr. Konig in the Appendix. A number of shells, of the Venus tribe, were found imbedded in the bottom of the ravines. A thermometer, of which the bulb was buried 62 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 1819. two or three inches in the sand, considerably above high-water mark, indi- '^^^^' cated the temperature of 35|° ; that of the air, the sun being obscured by clouds at the time, being 33|°, The latitude of the place of observation was 75° 09' 23", and the longitude, by chronometers, 103° 44' 37". The dip of the magnetic needle was 88° 25'.5S, and the variation was now found to have changed from 128° 58' West, in the longitude of 91° 48', where our last observations on shore had been made, to 165° 50' 09" East, at our present station ; so that we had, in sailing over the space included be- tween those two meridians, crossed immediately to the northward of the mag- netic pole, and had undoubtedly passed over one of those spots upon the globe, where the needle would have been found to vary 180°, or in other words, where its north pole would have pointed due south. This spot would, in all probability, at this time be somewhere not far from the meridian of 100° west of Greenwich. It would undoubtedly have been extremely interesting to obtain such an observation, and in any other than the very precarious navigation in which we were now engaged, I should have felt it my duty to devote a certain time to this particular purpose ; but, under present circumstances, it was impossible for me to regret the cause which alone had prevented it, especially as the importance to science of this obsei-vation was not sufficient to compensate the delay which the search after such a spot would necessarily have occasioned, and which could hardly be justified at a moment when we were making, and for two or three days continued to make, a rapid and unobstructed progress towards the accomplishment of our principal object. Captain Sabine remarked, in obtaining the observations for the variation, that the compasses, which were those of Captain Rater's construction, required somewhat more tapping with the hand, to make them traverse, than they did at the place of observation in Prince Regent's Inlet, on the 7th of August, where the magnetic deep was ' very nearly the same ; but that, when they had settled, they indicated the meridian with more precision. For instance, on the 7th of August, the compass, when levelled on its stand, would traverse of itself; but if the bear- ing of any object were observed with it, and the compass frequently removed and replaced, the bearings so obtained would differ from each other, notwith- standing much tapping, to the amount of 3° or 4° ; whereas on the present occasion, more sluggishness was observable, yet, at the same time, a closer agreement in the successive results. The tide was rising by the shore, from noon till half past four P.M., at OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 63 which time the boats left the beach ; and, by the high-watermark, it was isig. considered probable that it had yet to rise full an hour longer. The time of ^^^oJi^' high water, therefore, may be taken at half past five, which will make that of the full and change days about twelve o'clock. Mr. Ross found, on rowing round the point near which he landed, that the stream was setting strong against him from the northward. We had tried the current in the offing at noon, by mooring the small boat to the bottom, when it was found to be run- ning in a south direction, at the rate of half a mile per hour. At four P.M., near the same station, it was setting S.S.W., five eighths of a mile an hour, so that it would appear tolerably certain that the flood-tide here comes from the northward. The wind became very light from the eastward, and the weather continued Sun. '29. so foggy that nothing could be done during the night but to stand ofl-and-on, by the soundings, between the ice and the land ; as we had no other means of knowing the direction in which we were sailing, than by the decrease in the depth of water on one tack, and by making the ice on the other. The fog froze hard upon the rigging, which always makes the working of the ship a very laborious task, the size of the running rigging being sometimes thus increased to three times its proper diameter. At four A.M. on the 29th, the current was tried by mooring a boat to the bottom, but none could be detected. About this time the fog partially cleared away for a little while, when we ob- served that the ice was more open off Cape Gillman, than when we had before attempted to pass in that direction. At five o'clock, therefore, we made sail for the point, with a light easterly breeze ; but at seven, when we had pro- ceeded only two or three miles, the fog came on again as thick as before : for- tunately, however, we had previously been enabled to take notice of several pieces of ice, by steering for each of which in succession, we came to the edge of a floe, along which our course was to be pursued to the westward. As long as we had this guidance, we advanced with great confidence ; but as soon as we came to the end of the floe, which then turned off to the southward, the circumstances under which we were sailing were, perhaps, such as have never occurred since the early days of navigation. To the northward was the land ; the ice, as we supposed, to the southward ; the compasses useless ; and the sun completely obscured by a fog, so thick that the Griper could only now and then be seen at a cable's length astern. We had literally, therefore, no mode of regulating our course but by once more trusting to the steadiness of the wind ; and it was not a little amusing, as well as novel, to see the quarter-master ^ VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 1819. conning the ship by looking at the dog-vane. Under all these circumstances, J^^' it was necessary to run under easy sail, the breeze having gradually freshened up from the eastward. Our soundings were at this time extremely regular, being from forty-one to forty-five fathoms, on a bottom of soft mud. At ten o'clock the weather became clear enough to allow us to see our way through a narrow part in a patch of ice which lay ahead, and beyond which there was some appearance of a " water-sky." There is, however, nothing more deceit- ful than this appearance during a fog, which, by the same optical illusion whereby all other objects become magnified, causes every small " hole," of clear water to appear like a considerable extent of open and navigable sea. We continued running till eleven P.M., when the fog came on again, making the night so dark that it was no longer possible to proceed in any tolerable security; I therefore directed the ships to be made fast to a floe, having sailed by our account, twelve miles, the depth of water being forty-four fathoms. Mon. 30. The fog continued till five A.M. on the 30th, when it cleared sufficiently to give us a sight of the land, and of the heavy ice aground ofi^ Cape Gillman, the latter being five or six miles to the northward of us, in which situation we had deepened our soundings to fifty fathoms during the night's drift. The state of the ice, and of the weather, not permitting us to move, Captain Sabine, being desirous of making some use of this unavoidable detention, and considering it at all times important to confirm magnetic observations obtained on shore in these high latitudes, by others taken upon the ice, employed himself in repeat- ing his series of observations on the dip of the needle, which he found to be 88° 29'. 12, differing only three minutes and a half from that obtained on shore on the 28th, a few leagues to the northward and eastward of our present sta- tion. The floe to which the ships were now secured was not more than six or seven feet in thickness, and was covered with innumerable pools of water, most of which had communication with the sea, as we could with difficulty obtain any that was sufficiently fresh for drinking. In many parts, indeed, there were large holes through which the sea was visible, and the under surface was much decayed and honey-combed, being nearly in that state which the Greenland sailors call " rotten." Some of the officers amused themselves in skating on the pools, all of which' were hard frozen on the surface ; and the men in sliding^ foot-ball, and other games. By putting some drag-nets and oyster-dredges overboard, and suffering them to drag along the ground as the ship drifted with the ice, we obtained a few specimens of marine insects. OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 65 In the evening a quantity of loose ice drifted down near the ships ; and, to 1819. avoid being beset, we made sail towards the island, our soundings being Jivil' from thirty-five to seventeen fathoms : we were soon under the necessity of again anchoring to a floe, till the weather should clear, being in twenty-one fathoms, at the distance of three miles from the land. The weather cleared a little at intervals, but not enough to enable us to pro- Tues. o. ceed till nine A.M. on the 31st, when we cast off from the ice, with a very light air from the northward. We occasionally caught a glimpse of the land through the heavy fog-banks, with which the horizon was covered, which was sufficient to give us an idea of the true direction in which we ought to steer. Soon after noon we were once more enveloped in fog, which however, was not so thick as to prevent our having recourse to a new expedient for steering the ships, which circumstances at the time naturally suggested to our minds. Before the fog re-commenced, and while we were sailing on the course which by the bearings of the land we knew to be the right one, the Griper was exactly astern of the Hecla, at the distance of about a quarter of a mile. The wea- ther being fortunately not so thick as to prevent our still seeing her at that distance, the quarter-master was directed to stand aft, near the taffi-ail, and to keep her constantly astern of us, by which means we contrived to steer a tolerably straight course to the westward. The Griper, on the other hand, naturally kept the Hecla right a-head ; and thus, however ridiculous it may appear, it is, nevertheless, true, that we steered one ship entirely by the other for a distance of ten miles out of sixteen and a half, which we sailed between one and eleven P.M. It then became rather dark, and the water having shoaled from fifty to twenty-three fathoms somewhat more suddenly than usual, I did not consider it prudent to run any farther till it should become light and clear enough to see around us, as it was probable that we were approaching land of which we had no knowledge. We therefore hauled our wind to the S.S.E., on the larboard tack, and at midnight had deepened the water to fifty- two fathoms, being among rather close " sailing ice*." The wind died away on the morning of the 1st of September, and the fog Sept. was succeeded by snow and sleet, which still rendered the atmosphere ex- ^^^- '• tremely thick. At a quarter before four A.M., I was informed by the officer of the watch that a breeze had sprung up, and that there was very little ice * The monthly Meteorological Abstracts will be inserted at the end of each month, as being more convenient for reference than if placed in a continued series iu the Appendix. K ABSTRACT of the METEOROLOGICAL JOURNAL kept on board His Majesty's Ship Hecla, at Sea, d uring the Month o( August, 1819. Day Temperature of Air in shade. Sea Water at the surface. j Barometer. 1 1 Prevailing Winds. Prevailiiig Weather. Maxi- Mitii- Mean. Tempe- Specific Gravity Tempera weighed. Maxi- mum. Mini- Mean. 1 o 36 + o 33.5 + O 34.50 + o 32.6 1.0215 55.5 inches. 29.60 inche3. inches. 29.51 29.540 West Fresh breezes and hazy. 2 41 33 37.00 34.2 1.0255 52 29.73 29.59 29.660 fN.E.bE.roundby \ I South to West ( 5 A.M. S.WbW. ) I P.M. East. 5 From fresh breezes to calms. Fine weather. 3 38 33 35.58 33.2 1.0217 55 29.70 29.50 29.632 Moderate breezes and hazy. 4 37.5 33.5 35.29 32.8 1.0218 55 29.51 29.45 29.481 East Strong breezes and hazy. 5 35 33.5 34.25 31.7 29.51 29.48 29.496 N.W. Light airs and cloudy, with snow. 6 35 33 33.83 31.8 1.0232 59 29.50 29.51 29.530 North Light breezes and cloudy. 7 30 31 33.83 31.6 1.0248 58 29.60 29.53 29.5G2 North Moderate breezes and cloudy. 8 35 30 32.62 31.5 1.0236 38 29.65 29.59 29.622 N.W. Light breezes and cloudy. 9 39.5 30.5 33.92 30.9 1.0255 50 29.07 29.62 29.650 N.W.bW.toS.S.W. Ditto. 10 36 31 33.00 31.2 1.0246 56 29.55 29.52 29.540 S.bW. i Moderate breezesand hazy, with rain and snow. 11 35 33 33.42 31.0 1.0214 56 29.60 29.49 29.567 S.bW. : Moderate and foggy, with continued rain. 12 35 30 32.58 31.4 1.02J0 55 29.85 29.80 29.820 N.bE. Moderate and foggy, with rain at intervals. 13 40 30 3G.88 32.2 1.0237 51 29.80 29.72 29.810 S.W. Light airs and fine clear weather. 14 42 34 30.75 32.7 1.0239 55 29.76 29.ei 29.717 N.N.W. to S.S.W. Ditto ditto. 15 39 32 35.21 33.1 1.0236 55 29.63 29.61 29.620 S. Westerly. Ditto ditto. 16 36 33 34.00 32.8 1.0242 55 29.68 29.61 29.642 5 S.S.E. round by > I S. to W.N.W. 5 Light airs and hazy ; calm at times. 17 35 32 33.42 32.6 1.0242 55 29.66 29.63 29.652 S.W. Light airs and foggy weather. 18 36 32.5 33.67 32.5 1.0236 55 29.64 29.60 29.625 5 A.M. S.W.bW. ? t P.M. N.E.bE. 1 Light breezes and cloudy. 19 33 32 32.83 32.8 1.0233 57 ;29.55 29.53 29542 E.bN. Sttongbreezei & hazy, with rain, hail, & sleet. 20 36 33 34.86 32.6 1.0233 57 29.63 29.57 29.610 E.bN. Light breezes and hazy weather. 21 36 33 34.79 32.5 1.018S 58 29.66 29.62 29.650 Round the compass. Ditto 22 38 33 35.62 33.2 1.0235 54 29.76 29.67 29.729 Ditto. Light variable airs— A.M. hazy, P.M. clear. 23 36 32 33.75 31.5 1.0247 54 29.76 29.66 29.712 North Moderate breezes and cloudy. 24 30 28 29.50 30.1 1.0246 54 29.66 29.61 29.634 N.N.W. Fresh breezes and cloudy. 25 26 27 28 32 35 34 34 30 30 30.5 30 30.54 31.92 32.58 32.00 30.2 30.4 30.9 31.8 29.87 30.06 29.96 29.70 29.64 29.95 29.80 29.60 29.757 30.012 29.900 29.657 N.W. N.W.b.W. S.S.W. S.S.E. to N.E. Ditto. Ditto. Light breezes and fine clear weather. Light breezes and foggy. Light airs and foggy. Fresh breezes and foggy. Light airs, with sleet and snow. 29 30 31 32 34 34 31 30 31 31.75 32.08 32.21 31.7 31.1 31.4 29.57 29.36 29.59 29.40 29.31 29.39 29.482 29.332 29.510 S.E. N.E. 5 N.W. round by ) I North to East J 42 28 33,67 31.93 30.06 29.31 29.635 VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY. Gf near the ships. Anxious to take advantage of these favourable circumstances, I directed all sail to be made to the westward : there was no difficulty in com- plying with the first part of this order, but to ascertain which way the wind was blowing, and to which quarter of the horizon the ship's head was to be directed, was a matter of no such easy accomplishment ; nor could we devise any means of determining this question till five o'clock, when we obtained a sight of the sun through the fog, and were thus enabled to shape our course, the wind being moderate from the northward. In standing to the southward, we had gradually deepened the water to one hundred and five fathoms, and our soundings now as gradually decreased as we stood to the westward ; giving us reason to believe, as on the preceding night, and from the experience we had acquired of the navigation among these islands, that we were approaching land in that direction. In this sup- position we were not deceived, for, at half-past eight, the fog having sud- denly cleared up, we found ourselves within four or five miles of a low point of land which was named after Mr. Griffiths, and which, being at the distance of six or seven leagues from Byam Martin Island, we considered to be part of another of the same group. We sailed along the shore at the distance of two to four miles in a S.W.b.W. direction, and having dropped a boat to obtain observations upon the ice, without heaving-to for that purpose, we found ourselves to be, at noon, in latitude 74° 59' 35", and longitude, by chronometers, 106° 07 36". This land very much resembled, in height and general character, the other islands which we had lately passed, being in most parts of a brownish colour, among which we also imagined a little green to be here and there discernible. We had some small rain in the afternoon, which was succeeded by snow towards midnight. At one A.M. on the 2d, a star was seen, being the first that had been ihurs. 2. visible to us for more than two months. The fog came on again this morning, which, together with the lightness of the wind preventing the ships getting sufficient way to keep them under command, occasioned them some of the heaviest blows which they had yet received during the voyage, although the ice was generally so loose and broken as to have allowed an easy passage with a moderate and leading wind. As none of the pieces near us were large enough for securing the ships in the usual manner, we could only heave-to, to windward of one of the heaviest masses, and allow the ship to drive Avith it till some favourable change should take place. After lying for an hour in this inactive and helpless situation, we again made sail, the weather being 68 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY rather more clear, which discovered to us that the main body of the ice wass about three miles distant from the land, the intermediate space being very thickly covered with loose pieces through which our passage was to be sought. As we stood in for the land in the forenoon, we decreased our soundings uniformly from twenty-seven to eleven fathoms at one and a half or two miles from the beach, and a boat, which I sent to sound in-shore, found the water to shoal very regularly to six fathoms at about half a mile. At this distance from the beach, there were many large masses of ice aground ; and it was here that the method so often resorted to in the subsequent part of the voyage, of placing the ships between these masses and the land, in case of the ice closing suddenly upon us, first suggested itself to our minds. As we were making no way to the westward, I directed two boats to be pre- pared from each ship for the purpose of making the usual observations on shore, as well as to endeavour to kill deer; and, at one P.M., I left the ship, accompanied by a large party of officers and men, and was soon after joined by the Griper's boats. We landed on a very flat sandy beach, which did not allow the boats to come nearer than their own length, and we were imme- diately struck with the general resemblance in the character of this island to that of Byam Martin Island, which we had lately visited. The basis of this land is sandstone, but we met with limestone also, occurring in loose pieces on the surface, and several lumps of coal were brought in by the parties Avho had traversed the island in diiferent directions. Our sportsmen were by no means successful, having seen only two deer, which were too wild to allow them to get near them. The dung of these animals, however, as well as that of the musk-ox was very abundant, especially in those places where the moss was most luxuriant ; every here and there we came to a spot of this kind, consisting of one or two acres of ground covered with a rich vegetation, and which was evidently the feeding-place of those animals, there being quantities of their hair and wool lying scattered about. Several heads of the musk- ox were picked up, and one of the Hecla's seamen brought to the boat a narwhal's horn which he found on a hill more than a mile from the sea, and which must have been carried thither by Esquimaux or by bears : three or four brace of ptarmigan fTetrao Lagopus,J were killed, and these were the only supply of this kind which we obtained. Serjeant Martin of the artillery, and Captain Sabine's servant, brought down to the beach several pieces of a large fir-tree, which they found nearly buried in the sand, at the distance of three or four hundred yards from the present high-water OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 69 mark, and not less than thirty feet above the level of the sea. We found no I8i9. indication of this part of the island having been inhabited, unless the ^"^^ narwhal's horn, above alluded to, be considered as such. The latitude of the place of observation here, which was within a hundred yards of the beach, was 74° 58', the longitude, by chronometers, 107° 03' 31".7, and the variation of the magnetic needle 151° 30' 03" eas- terly. At forty minutes past one P.M., when the boats landed, the tide had fallen a foot by the shore. It continued to fall till seven P.M., and then rose again, the whole fall of tide not exceeding five or five and a half feet. At the time we landed. Lieutenant Beechey tried for a current in the offing, but could find none ; at half-past seven, the tide was setting E.N.E., at the rate of a mile and a half an hour ; and, at a quarter before ten, after 1 returned on board, it was still setting slowly to the eastward. By the above observations, the time of high water, at the full and change of the moon, seems to be about three quarters after one o'clock. The direction of the flood-tide does not appear so clear. If it come from the westward, there must be a tide and half tide ; but it seems more than probable, on an in- spection of the chart, that here, as on the eastern sideof Byam Martin Island, it will be found to come from the northward between the islands. At the top of a hill, immediately above the place of observation, and about a mile from the sea, a bottle was buried, containing the usual information. A mound of sand and stones was raised over it, and a boarding-pike fixed in the middle. We returned on board at half past eight, and found that Lieutenant Beechey had, in the mean time, taken a number of useful soundings, and made other hydrographical remarks for carrying on the survey of the coast. The wind continued light and variable till half-past eight A.M. on the 3d, Fiwl. 3. when a breeze from the northward once more enabled us to make some progress. I was the more anxious to do so, from having perceived that the main ice had, for the last twenty-four hours, been gradually, though slowly, closing on the shore, thereby contracting the scarcely navigable channel in which we were sailing. The land which formed our western extreme was a low point, five miles to the westward of our place of observation the preceding day, and the ice had already approached this point so much, that there was considerable doubt whether any passage could be found between them. As wc neared the point, we shoaled the water rather quickly, though regularly, from thirty to seven fathoms ; but, by keeping a little farther out, which fortunately the ice just at that time allowed us to do, we avoided getting into shoaler 70 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY water, and immediately after rounding the point, we increased our soundings to sixteen and seventeen fathoms. We had scarcely cleared the point, how- ever, when the wind failed us, and the boats were immediately sent a-head to tow, but a breeze springing up shortly after from the westward, obliged us to have recourse to another method of gaining ground which we had not hitherto practised : this was by using small anchors and whale-lines as warps, by which means Ave made great progress, till, at forty minutes after noon, we were favoured by a fresh breeze, which soon took us into an open space of clear water to the northward and westward. While we were thus em- ployed on board, Mr. Ross, after whom I named this point, had been des- patched in a boat to sound in-shore near it, where there were a great many large masses of ice aground, in order that we might be prepared to place the ships in the most advantageous position, should the ice unexpectedly close upon the shore, Mr. Ross reported, that he had found good depth of water in-shore, the ice being aground in five to seven fathoms, after which the water shoaled gradually towards the land. A little to the westward of Point Ross, there was a barrier of this kind of ice, composed of heavy masses firmly fixed to the ground at nearly regular intervals for about a mile, in a direction parallel to the beach. At right angles to this, a second tier projected, of the same kind of ice, extending to the shore, so that the two together formed a most complete harbour, within which, I believe, a ship might have been placed in case of necessity, without much danger from the pressure of the external floes of ice. It was natural for us to keep in view the possibility of our being obliged to pass the ensuing winter in such a harbour ; and, it must be confessed, that the apparent practicability of finding such tolerable security for the ships as this artificial harbour affbrded, should we fail in discovering a more safe and regular anchorage, added not a little to the confidence with which our operations were carried on during the remainder of the present season. The land immediately to the north-westward of Point Ross forms a considerable bay, named after Mr. Skene, off which there was a large space of clear water, where we had to beat to the northward during the afternoon, as the ice lay in that direction. In standing off-and-on, we shoaled the water in one place very suddenly from nineteen to eleven fathoms, at the distance of one mile from the beach. Having tacked, I sent Mr. Bushnan to sound in-shore, where a shoal was discovered three quarters of a mile from the land, having three and four fathoms upon it, and OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 71 within it from eight to thirteen fathoms. The sun-set of this evening was extremely beautiful, the weather being clear and frosty, and the sky without a cloud. The moon rising soon after, afforded a spectacle no less pleasing, and far more sublime. Her horizontal diameter appeared to be very much elongated when just above the horizon, owing to the unequal refraction of the upper and lower limbs ; but it measured 33' 20", being only 6" more than the true, which difference may have arisen from an error in the observation. The vertical diameter measured 30' 40' . Having weathered all the ice round which we had to sail, in order to pro- Sat. 4. ceed to the westward, we were under the necessity of lying-to, off Skene Bay, for some hours, the weather having become very squally and unsettled, with occasional fog, and the night not being sufficiently light to ascertain whether there was a passage between the ice and a point of land which forms the western extreme of the bay. On its eastern side an inlet, two miles wide . at the entrance, was discovered, and named after Mr. Beverly, and at the bottom of this we did not see the land all round. At half-past two A.M., we made sail to the westward, the Griper having been directed by signal to extend her distance ; a precaution which was always adopted in cases where shoal-water was to be apprehended, in order to avoid the risk of both ships grounding at the same time. As we approached the point, the sound- ings decreased gradually from thirty to seven fathoms, in which depth I tacked, and despatched Mr. Palmer in a boat to sound round the point, to which I gave the name of Cape Palmer, after the gentleman intrusted with this service. Having been informed by signal from the boat, that no less than six fathoms' water had been found, we again tacked, and soon after rounded the point in that depth, at the distance of three quarters of a mile from a low sandy beach. We then ran several miles along the shore without much obstruction, till the wind, backing to the north-west, obliged us to make several tacks between the ice and the land, the navigable channel being at this time between three and four miles wide. At noon we observed, in latitude 74° 54' 49 ", the longitude, by chronometers, being 108° 31' 44", at which time we were off a low, sandy island, which was named after Mr. Dealy, and which lies near the entrance into a large inlet, to which the name of Bridport Inlet was given, from regard to the memory of the late Lord Bridport. This inlet runs a considerable distance to the northward, and seemed to afford good shelter for ships ; but, as we had no opportunity of examining it in our boats, I am unable to state any further particulars respecting it. The land to the "^2 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY ^819. westward of it, of which the most conspicuous part is a remarkable bluff head- v^^^. land, is much higher than that about Skene Bay; and we ceased to obtain any soundings with the hand-leads after we had passed the entrance of Bridport Inlet. At a quarter-past nine P.M., we had the satisfaction of crossing the meridian of 110° west from Greenwich, in the latitude of 74° 44' 20"; by which His Majesty's ships, under my orders, became entitled to the sum of five thousand pounds, being the reward offered by the King's order in coun- cil, grounded on a late Act of Parliament, to such of His Majesty's subjects as might succeed in penetrating thus far to the westward within the Arctic Circle. In order to commemorate the success which had hitherto attended our exertions, the bluff headland, which we had just passed, was subsequently called by the men Bounty Cape ; by which name I have, therefore, distin- guished it on the chart. As we stood to the westward, we found the extreme of the land in that direction to be a low point, which was named after Samuel Hearne, the well-known American traveller, and to the north-eastward of which is a bay of considerable extent, which was perfectly free from ice. We con- tinued our course towards Cape Hearne till midnight, when, the weather being too dark to run any longer with safety, the ships were hove-to with their heads to the eastward. One black whale was seen^ in the course of this day's navigation, off Bridport Inlet ; and some flocks of snow-buntings were flying about the ship at night. Sun. 5. At a quarter before three A.M., on the 5th, we tacked, and stood to the westward, with the hope of getting past Cape Hearne, the wind being moderate from the northward, and the weather thick with snow; and, shortly after, we shoaled the water quickly from twenty-five to thirteen, and then to nine, fathoms. We tacked in the latter depth, believing that we were approaching a shoal, especially as we were near some heavy ice, which, having a tide-mark upon it, appeared to be aground. We afterwards found, however, that we had at this time been actually within three or four hundred yards of Cape Hearne, which is so surrounded by heavy ice at a sufficient distance from the shore, that it would perhaps be difficult to run a ship aground upon it. The error into which we were here led, as to our distance from the beach, arose from the extreme difficulty of distinguishing, even in broad day-light, between the ice and the land, when the latter is low and shelving, and completely covered with snow ; by the uniform whiteness of which, they are so completely blended, as to deceive the best eye. Indeed, OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. ■ 73 I know no circumstance in the navigation of these seas which renders more 1819 necessary a vigilant look-out, and a careful attention to the hand-leads than -..J^ the deception to which I here allude. Having stood again to the westward, to take a nearer view of the ice, we perceived that it lay quite close in with Cape Hearne, notwithstanding the fresh northerly wind which, for the last thirty-six hours, had been blowing from the shore, and which had drifted the ice some distance to the south- ward, in every other part of the coast along which we had lately been sailing. This circumstance struck us very forcibly at the time, as an extraordinary one ; and it was a general remark among us, that the ice must either be aground in shoal-water, or that it butted against something to the southward, which prevented its moving in that direction. Appearances being thus dis- couraging, nothing remained to be done but to stand off-and-on near the point, and carefully to watch for any opening that might occur. After divine service had been performed, I assembled the officers, seamen, and marines of the Hecia, and announced to them officially, that their exertions had so far been crowned with success, as to entitle them to the first prize in the scale of rewards, granted by His Majesty's order in council above- mentioned. I took this opportunity of impressing upon the minds of the men the necessity of the most strenuous exertions during the short remainder of the present season ; assuring them that, if we could penetrate a few de- grees farther to the westward, before the ships were laid up for the winter, I had little doubt of our accomplishing the object of our enterprise before the close of the next season. I also addressed a letter to Lieutenant Liddon, to the same effect, and directed a small addition to be made to the usual allowance of meat, and some beer to be served, as a Sunday's dinner, on this occasion. The wind increasing to a fresh gale from the northward in the afternoon, and the ice still continuing to oppose an impenetrable barrier to our further progress, I determined to beat up to the northern shore of the bay, and, if a tolerable roadstead could be found, to drop our anchors till some change should take place. This was accordingly done at three P.M., in seven fathoms' water, the bottom being excellent holding-ground, composed of mud and sand, from which the lead could with difficulty be extricated. When we veered to half a cable, we had ten fathoms' water under the Hecla's stern, our distance from the northern shore being about a mile and a half This roadstead, which I called the Bav of the Hecla and Griper, affords very I, 74 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 1819. secure shelter with the wind from E.N.E., round by north, to S.W., and we J,rS^ found it more free from ice than any other part of the southern coast of the island. I had great reason to be satisfied with our having anchored the ships, as the wind shortly after blew a hard gale from the northward. In the evening I sent Captain Sabine and Messrs. Edwards and Nias on shore to examine the country, and to collect specimens of its natural productions ; they returned at ten P.M., having landed on a low point a little to the westward of the ships, which they found to be a very barren and unproductive spot ; several flocks of ducks were seen, and some glaucous gulls and tern ; the dung and foot- tracks of the deer and musk-ox were also observed in many places ; and some addition was made by our gentlemen to our collection of marine insects. The rocks are composed entirely of sandstone, but a few small pieces of granite, flint, and coal, were also among the specimens brought on board. This island, on which our boats had now landed for the second time, and Avhich is much the largest of the group we had lately discovered, I honoured with the name of Melville Island, after Viscount Melville, the First Lord of the Admiralty. The bay of the Hecla and Griper was the first spot where we had dropped anchor since leaving the coast of Norfolk ; a circumstance which was rendered the more striking to us at the moment, as it appeared to mark, in a very de- cided manner, the completion of one stage of our voyage. The ensigns and pendants were hoisted as soon as we had anchored, and it created in us no ordinary feelings of pleasure to see the British flag waving, for the first time, in these regions, which had hitherto been considered beyond the limits of the habitable part of the world. OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 75 CHAPTER IV. FURTHER EXAMINATION OF MELVILLE ISLAND CONTINUATION OF OUR PRO- GRESS TO THE WESTWARD LONG DETENTION BY THE ICE — PARTY SENT ON SHORE TO HUNT DEER AND MUSK-OXEN RETURN IN THREE DAYS, AFTER LOSING THEIR WAY — ANXIETY ON THEIR ACCOUNT — PROCEED TO THE WESTWARD, TILL FINALLY STOPPED BY THE ICE — IN RETURNING TO THE EASTWARD THE GRIPER FORCED ON THE BEACH BY THE ICE — SEARCH FOR, AND DISCOVERY OF, A WINTER HARBOUR ON MELVILLE ISLAND — OPERA- TIONS FOR SECURING THE SHIPS IN THEIR WINTER QUARTERS. As the wind still continued to blow strong from the northward on the morn- ing of the 6th, without any appearance of opening a passage for us past Cape Hearne, I took the opportunity of sending all our boats from both ships at eight A.M., to bring on board a quantity of moss-peat which our gentlemen reported having found near a small lake at no great distance from the sea, and which I directed to be substituted for part of our usual allowance of coals. Captain Sabine also went on shore to make the requisite observations, and several of the officers of both ships to sport, and to collect specimens of natural history. The boats rowed round the point on which they had landed the preceding evening, and which Captain Sabine now selected as the most convenient place of observation ; and discovered just beyond it to the north- ward, a small harbour, having a bar at its entrance, upon which Mr. Fife, the Greenland master of the Griper, after whom the harbour was named, found ten feet water at nearly low tide. The latitude of the point is 74° 46' 56", and its longitude, by our chrono- meters, 110° 33' 59". The dip of the magnetic needle was found to be 88° 29'.91, and the variation 126° 17' 18" Easterly. It was low water by the Mon. 76 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 1819. shore at half-past nine, and it had risen between two and three feet when ,..,!^ the boats came away at half-past twelve. During this time the ships were tending to a tide coming strong from the eastward ; from which direction it is therefore probable, that the flood-tide runs on this part of the coast, though we had no satisfactory opportunity of trying its true set in the offing. Near the point where the observations were made, a bottle was buried, containing a paper as usual, and a pile of stones raised over it. The weather was this day unusually cold to the feelings, to a greater degree even than might have been expected from the indication of the thermometer, which, for the first time, had been as low as 25°. The wind beginning to moderate soon after noon, and there being at length some appearance of motion in the ice near Cape Hearne, the boats were im- mediately recalled from the shore, and returned at two P.M., bringing some peat, which was found to burn tolerably, but a smaller quantity than I had hoped to procure, owing to a misunderstanding as to the distance at which it was to be found from the sea. At half-past tAvo, as soon as the ship's company had dined, we began to heave at the cable, but so excellent is the holding-ground, that it required all the purchase as well as strength we could apply, to start the anchor by half-past four. We then made sail for Cape Hearne, which we rounded at six o'clock, having no soundings with from seventeen to twenty fathoms of line, at the distance of a mile and a quarter from the point. The extreme of the land which now appeared to the west- ward bore about S.W.b.W., and there was a sufficient space of clear water along the shore to allow us to steer for it. It was impossible, however, not to remark to how short a distance from the shore, not exceeding three or four miles, the ice had been drifted by the late strong gales. We had observed, however, that in rounding Cape Hearne this evening, the wind had drawn gradually to the eastward as we proceeded, taking nearly the direction of the shore, and we were willing to hope that it had been blowing from the same quarter, while we were lying at anchor in the bay ; in which case it was not necessary to suppose any such serious obstruction to the southward as that to which we had at first been inclined to attribute these unfavourable appearances. I was beginning once more to indulge in those flattering hopes, of which often-repeated disappointments cannot altogether deprive us, when I per- ceived, from the crow's nest, a compact body of ice, extending completely in to the shore near the point which formed the western extreme. We ran J OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 77 1819. sufficiently close, to be assured that no passage to the westward could at ^^ ^ present be effected, the floes being literally upon the beach, and not a drop ^^r»j of clear water being visible beyond them. I then ordered the ships to be made fast to a floe, being in eighty fathoms' water, at the distance of four or five miles from the beach. The season had now so far advanced, as to make it absolutely necessary to secure the ships every night from ten till two o'clock, the weather being too dark during that interval to allow of our keeping under-way in such a navigation as this, deprived as we were of the use of the compasses. But, however anxious the hours of darkness must necessarily be under such circumstances, the experience of the former voyage had given us every reason to believe, that the month of September would prove the most valuable period of the year for prosecuting our discoveries in these regions, on account of the sea being more clear from ice at this time than at any other. Feeling, therefore, as I did, a strong conviction, that the ultimate accomplishment of our object must depend, in a great measure, on the further progress we should make this season, I determined to extend our operations to the latest possible period. The wind having been fresh from the north-east during the night, we were Tues. 7. this morning enclosed for a time by a quantity of loose ice drifting down upon us. No change could be perceived in the state of the ice to the westward till one P.M., when it appeared to be moving a little off the point. We therefore warped the ships out, and made sail with a light but favourable breeze. At eight P.M., however, having arrived at the point, and finding no passage open, we made the ships fast in a large bay in a floe, in sixty-five fathoms, at the distance of a mile and a half from the shore. I sent Lieutenant Beechey on shore to look round from the hills for open water to the westward, as well as to sound round some heavy masses of ice which were aground in-shore, and within which it would perhaps become expedient to secure the ships in case of necessity. He reported on his return, at ten P.M., that no clear water whatever could be seen along the land, the ice being compact, and close in to the shore, as far as a bold headland which now formed the western extreme of the island, and which was from four to five leagues distant from us. The ice aground in-shore was very close to the beach, which was steep-to, as our soundings in the offing indicated. Lieutenant Beechey found, however, a depth of from twelve to four fathoms Avithin many of the masses ; but as there was little or no room to swing within them, I preferred keeping the ships in their present 78 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY situation, while the ice remained quiet. I was the more induced to do so from the boldness of the beach, and the depth of the bay formed by the floe to which we were now secured, which circumstances seemed to render it more than probable, that the latter would take the ground long before the ships could come in contact with it. We saw to-day, for the first time, a herd of eight or nine animals, feeding near the beach, which, from their dark colour, we supposed to be musk-oxen; and the officers of the Griper killed two white hares (Lepus Variabilis). The " young" or "bay" ice formed during the night in all the sheltered places about the floe, and particularly in the bight in which we were lying, to the thickness of three-quarters of an inch ; and the pools upon the floe were now almost entirely solid, affording the officers and men, during the time of our unavoidable detention, the usual healthy amusements of skating and sliding. AVed. 8. On the morning of the 8th, there being no prospect of any immediate alteration in the ice, I directed the boats to be sent on shore from both ships, to endeavour to procure some game, as well as to examine the pro- ductions of this part of the island. On going to the mast-head, shortly after the boats had been despatched, I found that the bight of ice in which the ships were lying was not one floe, but formed by the close junction of two, so that our situation was by no means so secure as I had sup- posed ; for this bight was so far from being a protection to us, in case of the ice driving on shore, that it would probably be the means of " nipping" us between the floes which formed it. I therefore determined on imme- diately removing the ships in-shore, and went in a boat to look out for a place for that purpose, there being no alternative between this and our returning some distance to the eastward, into the larger space of clear water which we had there left behind us. I found that a heavy piece of ice aground in twelve fathoms, at the distance of three hundred yards from the beach, would suit our purpose for the Hecla, and another, in ten fathoms, still nearer in-shore, was selected for the Griper. These masses were from twenty to thirty feet above the sea, and each about the length of the respective ships. The beach in this neighbourhood was so lined with ice of this kind, that it would not have been easy for a ship to have gone on shore in any part, there being generally from four to seven fathoms on the outside of it, while the inner part of each mass was literally upon the beach at low water. Some of the detached masses, at a little distance from the shore, must have accumulated very considera- OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 79 bly since they grounded, or else must have been forced up into their pre- ]819. sent situations by an enormous pressure from without ; as some of those J^P^ now aground in four or five fathoms would have drawn at least ten, if set afloat again*. At four P.M., the weather being quite calm, the ships were towed in- shore by the boats, and made fast in the places selected for them. Our parties from the shore returned with a white hare, several fine ptarmigans, a few snow-buntings, some skulls of the musk-ox, and several rcin-deers' horns ; but they were not fortunate enough to meet with either of the two latter animals. The island is here, as in the other parts on which we had landed, principally composed of sandstone, of which some spherical nodules, one of them a^ large as a nine-pounder shot, were brought on board. Several lumps of coal, which was here more abundant than we had yet found it, were also picked up, and were found to burn with a clear lively flame, like cannel coal, but without splitting and crackling in the same manner. Impatient and anxious as we were to make the most of the short remainder Thurs. 9. of the present season, our mortification will easily be imagined at perceiving, on the morning of the 9th, not only that the ice was as close as ever to the westward, but that the floes in our innnediate neighbourhood were sensibly approaching the shore. As there was no chance, therefore, of our being en- abled to move, I sent a party on shore at day-light to collect what coal they could find, and in the course of the day nearly two-thirds of a bushel, being about equal to the Hecla's daily expenditure, was brought on board. Our sportsmen, who were out for several hours, could only procure us a hare, and a few ducks. The wind was light from the southward and westward, with foggy weather, which was afterwards succeeded by snow, and the ice continued gradually to close on the shore till at length a floe came in contact with our berg, but with so little violence as to produce no sensible effect upon it. The loose and heavy pieces of ice found their way in, and surrounded the Hecla on all sides, but produced no pressure from which any danger was to be apprehended. Con- * For want of some more appropriate name by which these masses of ice might be dis- tinguished, we were always in the habit of caUing them bergs, which indeed they exactly resemble, though comparatively of small dimensions, and evidently formed in a very different manner from those enormous ice-islands, which are met with in Baffin's Bay, but of which we saw none to the westward of Barrow's Strait. 80 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY sidering our present detention so near the shore a good opportunity for observ- ing the time and rise of the tides, I caused a pole to be fixed on the beach for this purpose, by which it was found to be high water at half-past four in the morning; and the tide ebbed till half-past ten. From this time till three quar- ters after four P.M., when it was again high water, the tide had risen two feet eight inches; so that, small as this tide is, it seems to be very regular. The direction of the stream of flood was, as usual, not so easy to determine, but I shall give the facts as they occurred. At the time of low water by the shore, and for an hour and a quarter before it took place, the current was setting to the eastward, at the rate of three quarters of a mile per hour. It continued to run thus for the greater part of the day, but at times it was observed to set in the opposite direction, and now and then no current whatever was percep- tible. From eight till eleven P.M., it was running strong to the westward, after which it stopped, and then began to set the ice the contrary way. I have been thus minute in mentioning the above particulars, not with a hope of throwing any light upon the interesting question of the direction of the tides in tl|is part of the Polar Sea, but to shew how impossible it is, with the land close to us on one side, and on the other innumerable masses of ice in almost constant motion, to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion on this subject. Frid. 10. It was nearly calm on the 10th, with thick snowy weather, which prevented our seeing to any great distance round us. At five A.M., a floe coming from the westward, ran against the berg, within which the Hecla was still secured, turning it round as on a pivot. This occurrence is not an uncommon one in Davis' Strait, with bergs of very large size, when the centre part of them only happens to be upon the ground. We were by this time so surrounded by ice that no clear water was to be seen, except the small pool in which we lay ; and all that could be done, under such circumstances, was to watch the motion of the ice, and to be ready to shift the ship quickly round the berg, according as the floes, by setting one way or the other, might endanger her being "nipped." In the afternoon the ice slackened a little near us, when an attempt was made to get the Hecla into a more secure birth in-shore ; but, after heaving a heavy strain occasionally for several hours, we could only succeed before dark in getting her into a small nook near the beach, in which, if no very violent pressure occurred, she might be tolerably secure during the night. A party re- turned in the evening from a shooting-excursion to the western cape, bringing with them only three hares, and reporting that the sea was entirely covered with ice as far as they could see to the westward from the hills. OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 81 Mr. Fisher made an experiment on the specific gravity of a piece of ice, taken from the mass to which the ship was secured. Being formed into a cube, whose sides measured one foot three inches and a half, and set to float in the sea, two inches and three quarters of it remained above the surface, the tem- perature of the water at the time being 31°. On the 11th there was no alteration in the ice near the ships, and Mr. Bush- Sat. 11. nan, whom 1 despatched at day -light to the western cape, reported, on his return, that appearances were equally unpromising in that quarter. Mr. Dealy was fortunate enough to kill the first musk-ox that our sportsmen had yet been able to get near ; but, as it was at the distance of eight or ten miles from the ships, our present situation, with regard to the ice, would not allow of my sending a party of men to bring it on board. A piece of the meat which Mr. Dealy brought with him was considered to taste tolerably well, but its smell was by no means tempting. The dip of the magnetic needle, observed here by Captain Sabine to-day, was 88° 36'. 95. The wind increased to a fresh gale from the northward during the night, and Sun. 12. on the morning of the 12th flew round to the N.N.W. in a very violent gust. Soon after the ice began to drift past us to the eastward, at the rate of a mile an hour, and carried away Avith it the berg to which the Hecla had been at- tached on the 9th and 10th ; so that we considered ourselves fortunate in having moved to our present birth, which was comparatively a safe one. The Griper remained also tolerably secure, and well sheltered from the drifting ice, which in the course of the forenoon, had acquired a velocity of more than a mile and a half per hour. In the afternoon the ice began by degrees to drift from the shore to the westward of us, but the wind blowing hard from the wrong quarter, it was impossible to think of moving the ships. A constant and vigilant look-out was also necessary, lest the berg to which our hawsers were secured should be forced off the ground, in which case we must inevitably have been driven back many miles to the eastward, and the labour of the last ten days would have been lost in a few hours. The night was cold and inclement, with a heavy fall of snow, which being blown among the hills, caused great drifts in the ravines, by which this part of the island is intersected. I must now mention an occurrence which had caused considerable appre- hension in our minds for the two last days, and the result of which had nearly proved of very serious importance to the future welfare of the expedition. Early on the morning of the 11th 1 received a note from Lieutenant Liddon, acquainting me thi*t, at day-light the preceding day, Mr. Fife, with a party of M 82 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY six men, had been despatched from the Griper, with the hope of surprising some rein-deer and musk-oxen, whose tracks had been seen in a ravine to the westward of the ships. As they had not yet returned, in compliance with the instructions given to Mr. Fife, and had only been supplied with a small quan- tity of provisions, it was natural to apprehend that they had lost their way in pursuit of game, more especially as the night had been too inclement for them to have voluntarily exposed themselves to it. I therefore recommended to Lieutenant Liddon to send a party in search of his people, and Messrs. Reid, Beverly, and Wakeham, who immediately volunteered their services on the occasion, were accordingly despatched for this purpose. Soon after their de- parture, however, it began to snow, which rendered the atmosphere so ex- tremely thick, especially on the hills along which they had to travel, that this party also lost their way in spite of every precaution, but fortunately got sight of our rockets after dark, by which they were directed to the ships, and returned at ten o'clock, almost exhausted with cold and fatigue, without any intelligence of the absentees. > At day-light on the following morning I sent Lieutenant Hoppner, with the Hecla's fore-royal-mast rigged as a flag-staff, which he erected on a conspicuous hill four or five miles inland, hoisting upon it a large ensign, which might be seen at a considerable distance in every direction. This expedient occurred to us as a more certain mode of directing our absentees towards the ships than that of sending out a number of parties, which I could not, in common pru- dence, as well as humanity, permit to go to any great distance from the ships ; but the snow fell so thick, and the drift was so great, during the whole of the 12th, that no advantage could at that time be expected from it, and another night came without the absent paity appearing. Mon. 13. - Our apprehensions on their account had by this time increased to a most painful degree, and I therefore ordered four parties, under the command of careful officers, to be prepared to set out in search of them the following morning. These parties carried with them a number of pikes, having small flags attached to them, which they were directed to plant at regular inter- vals, and which were intended to answer the double purpose of guiding themselves on their return, and of directing the absent party, should they meet with them, to the ships. For the latter purpose a bottle was fixed to each pike, containing the necessary directions for their guidance, and acquainting them that provisions would be found at the large flag-stafF on the hill. Our searching parties left the ships soon after day-light, the OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 83 wind still blowing hard from the westward, with incessant snow, and the thermometer at 28°. This weather continued without intermission during the day, and our apprehensions for the safety of our people were excited to a most alarming degree, when the sun began to descend behind the western hills, for the third time since they had left the ship ; I will not, therefore, attempt to describe the joyful feelings we suddenly experienced, on the Griper's hoisting the signal appointed, to inform us that her men, or a part of them, were seen on their return. Soon after we observed seven persons coming along the beach from the eastward, who proved to be Mr. Nias and his party, with four out of the seven men belonging to the Griper. From the latter, consisting of the corporal of marines and three sea- men, we learned that they had lost their way within a few hours after leaving the ship, and had wandered about without any thing to guide them till about ten o'clock on the following day, when they descried the large flag-staff, at a great distance. At this time the whole party were together ; but now, unfortunately, separated, in consequence of a difference of opinion respecting the flagstaff, which Mr. Fife mistook for a smaller one that had been erected some days before at a considerable distance to the east- ward of our present situation ; and, with that impression, walked away in a contrary direction, accompanied by two of his men. The other four who had now returned, (of whom two were already much debilitated,) determined to make for the flag-staff. When they had walked some distance and were enabled to ascertain what it was, one of them endeavoured to overtake Mr. Fife, but was too much fatigued, and returned to his comrades. They halted during a part of the night, made a sort of hut of stones and turf to shelter them from the weather, and kindled a little fire with gunpowder and moss to warm their feet ; they had never been in actual want of food, having lived upon raw grouse, of which they were enabled to obtain a quantity sufficient for their subsistence. In the morning they once more set forward towards the flag- staff, which they reached within three or four hours after Lieutenant Beechey had left some provisions on the spot : having eaten some bread, and drank a little rum and water, a mixture which they described as appearing to them per- fectly tasteless and clammy, they renewed their journey towards the ships, and had not proceeded far when, notwithstanding the snow which was con- stantly falling, they met with footsteps which directed them to Mr. Nias and his party, by whom they were conducted to the ships. The account they gave us of Mr. Fife and his two companions, led us to 84 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 1819. believe that we should find them, if still living, at a considerable distance to v.^^^ the westward, and some parties were just about to set out in that direction, when the trouble and anxiety which this mistake would have occasioned us were prevented by the arrival of another of the searching parties, with the in- formation that Mr. Fife and the two men were on their way to the ships, being about five miles to the eastward. Some fresh hands were immediately sent to bring them in, and they arrived on board at ten P.M., after an absence of ninety-one hours, and having been exposed, during three nights, to the incle- mency of the first wintry weather we had experienced. Almost the whole of this party were much exhausted by cold and fatigue, and several of them were severely frost-bitten in their toes and fingers ; but, by the skill and unremitted attention of our medical gentlemen, they were in a few days enabled to return to their duty. Before midnight we had still greater reason than ever to be thankful for the opportune recovery of our people ; for the wind increased to a hard gale about half-past eleven, at which time the thermometer had fallen to 15° ; making altogether so inclement a night, as it would have been impossible fiDr them, in their already debilitated state, to have survived. In humble gra- titude to God for this signal act of mercy, we distinguished the headland to the westward of the ships, by the name of Cape Providence. Tues. 14. Soon after midnight, the land-ice which was interposed between the Hecla and the beach, and to which the ship was partly secured, broke adrift, and floated off" the ground ; fortunately, however, we were prepared to cut the shore hawsers, by which means we avoided the danger of being carried off the shore, being well secured to the little berg a-head of us, which appeared to be firmly aground in ten fathoms' water. The stream cable was afterwards taken to the beach, and I determined, should the berg go adrift, to cut away our hawsers from it ; and, having checked the ship by the stream-cable till she swung into five fathoms, at the distance of forty or fifty yards from the shore, to let go a bower anchor, till the wind should moderate. I com- municated my intention to Lieutenant Liddon during the day, and directed him, in case of necessity, rather to run the Griper on the soft beach near us, than to risk being driven back to the eastward. Fortunately, however, it was not necessary to resort to this measure, as the ice held fast on the ground, notwithstanding the violence of the wind, and some sea which got up from the westward, as the space of open water between the land and the ice increased in that direction. At three A.M. this morning, the thermometer OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 85 had been as low as 9°, and rose gradually to 17°, at midnight. The sudden 1^819 and unexpected decrease in the general temperature of the atmosphere about this period was a very striking one ; and from this time, as will appear by the Meteorological Register, the commencement of winter may fairly be dated. Our flag-staves we brought on board early in the morning of the 15th, Wed. 15. and at ten A.M., the wind being somewhat more moderate, the stream-cable was cast off from the shore, in readiness for making sail ; but the wind freshened up once more to a strong gale, which rendered it necessary still to hold on by our hawsers. In the evening the stream-cable was taken on shore again, and we landed to make observations for the variation of the needle, which was found to be 1 17° 52' 22" easterly. It was observed, for the first time, that a strong current was setting to the Thur. 16. westward during the whole of the last night, directly against a fresh gale from that quarter. At nine A.M., the wind being much more moderate, as well as more off the land, and the weather fine and clear, we cast off, and made all sail to the westward, running along the land at the distance of two or three miles from it. At a quarter before noon, we were abreast of Cape Providence, beyond which, at the distance of three or four leagues, another headland, still more high and bold in its appearance, was dis- covered, and named after Mr. Hay, Private Secretary to the First Lord of the Admiralty. At the place which we left in the morning, the ice had been driven from the shore to the distance of six or seven miles ; but we found, as we proceeded, that the channel became gradually more and more contracted, till at length the ice was observed to extend, in a solid and impenetrable body, completely in to the very shore, a little to the eastward of Cape Hay. Our latitude, by account at noon, was 74° 23' 25", longitude 112° 29' 30". The wind again freshened to a strong gale in the afternoon, reducing us to our close-reefed topsails, which were as much as the ship would bear, the squalls blowing out of the ravines with extreme violence. It became necessary, therefore, to look out for a secure situation for the ships during the ensuing night, which threatened to be a tempestuous one; but no such situation pre- sented itself in this neighbourhood ; the whole of the coast to the westward of Cape Providence being so steep, that the heaviest ice can find no ground to rest upon. I was therefore reduced to the disagreeable necessity of run- ning back to the lower shore three miles and a half to the eastward of Cape Providence, where alone the ships could, under present circumstances, be 86 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 1819. placed in tolerable security during six or seven hours of darkness. We found