IGtbrarg ImuprBxtg of J^ttlaburglji
iCibrarg Untwrfittg of JPtttaburglj
Darlington Memorial Library
CfHaBH.C^...fcs;...<i>..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 <l, fromthcbottora,./;-!- 25 11 51 rearl Vi 10 51)
— 7,— 7, . — 48 0150 — 48 09 42
— 7, — 2, from the bottom, — 01 32 49 — 61 38 25
— 8,— 8 — 8134 28 — 6139 53
— 8, — 4, from the bottom, — fit 42 5S — 61 48 07
— II, — 9, do. do. — 56 47 56 — 57 07 56
— 12,— 9 — 57 46 26 — 57 5113
— 12, — 4, troni the bottom, — 57 00 43 — 57 05 54
— 13,— 5, —57 22 57 — 57.27 25
— 13,-20, — 58 10 30 — 53 14 55
— 14, — 4, from the botiom, — 57 33 56 — 57 37 40
— 15, — 7 — 59 II 53 — 50 14 57
— 16, — 3, — 59 46 18 — 59 43 04
— 17,-10 — 59 03 54 — 59 05 39
— 18,— 6, — 53 42 11 — 58 43 57
— 19, — 12 — 60 09 07 — 60 11 30
— 19, — 4, from the bottom, — 60 07 54 — GO 03 40
— 20, — 7, do. do. — 60 U 52 — 60 II 58
— 21, — 6, do. do. — 00 24 27 — 60 22 27
— 24, — 7, — 75 02 14 — 74 59 58
A Supplement to the Appendix, containing the Zoology, Botany, Geology, ^c, of the Arctic Regions, will be published
on the \st of June.
INTRODUCTION.
His Majesty's Government having determined on the equipment of an Expedition to attempt the Discovery of a North-West Pas- sage into the Pacific, the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty were pleased to honour me with the command ; and my Commission for His Majesty's ship the Hecla, was dated the 16th of January, 1819. I arrived in London on the 20th, and commissioned the Hecla at Deptford on the following day. The second vessel appointed for this service was the Griper, gun-brig ; she was commissioned by Lieute- nant Matthew Liddon, who was directed to put himself under my orders, on the 29th of January.
The Hecla was a bomb, of three hundred and seventy-five tores, built in a merchant's yard at Hull, in the year 1815, of large scant- ling, and having a capacious hold, which made her peculiarly fit for this service. The Griper was originally a gun-brig, of one hundred and eighty tons ; and it was proposed by the Navy Board to raise upon her a deck of six feet, so as to increase her stowage as much as pos- sible. Both ships had been taken into dock about the middle of December, in order to undergo a thorough repair, and to receive every strengthening which the nature of the service demanded.
INTRODUCTION.
The number of individuals employed on this service, amounted to ninety-four ; their distribution on board each ship will be seen in the following table.
A TABLE shewing the Officers, Seamen, Marines, SfC, embarked on board His Majesty's Ships
Hecla and Griper.
KANK.
ON BOARD THE HECLA.
Officers' Names.
No. of Rank
ON BOARD THE GRIPER.
Officers' Names. each
Rank
Lieutenant and Commander Astronomer . . . . .
Lieutenant
Surgeon
Purser
Assistant Surgeon ...
Midshipmen
Clerk
Gunner .... Boatswain . . . Carpenter . . . Greenland Master . Greenland Mate .
Cook
Leading Men . . Quarter-master Gunner's-mate . . Boatswain's-mate . Carpenter' s-mate . Armourer' s-mate . Sailmaker . . . Able Seamen . . Serjeant of Marines Privates of ditto . Serjeant of Artillery Private of ditto
William Edward Parry Capt. Edward Sabine, R. A. Frederick William Beechey John Edwards ..... William Harvey Hooper Alexander Fisher .... ■Joseph Nias . . William J. Dealey Charles Palmer . James Clarke Ross .John Bushnan James Halse . . James Scallon . . Jacob Swansea . . William Wallis . John Allison • . George Crawford .
Accompanying Capt. Sabine
Total 58
Matthew Liddon . . , Henry Parkyns Hoppner
Charles James Beverly .
Andrew Reid .... A. M. Skene . . . . William Nelson Griffiths
Cyrus Wakeham . . .
George Fife Alexander Elder
Corporal of Marines
Total
INTRODUCTION. Ill
As an encouragement to the oificers, seamen, and marines, who were desirous of being employed on this service, the Lords Commis- sioners of the Admiralty were pleased to grant to every individual engaged in the Expedition, double the ordinary pay of His Majesty's Navy. The ships were speedily manned with a full complement of excellent seamen ; nearly the whole of those who had served on the former Expedition having again volunteered tlieir services, besides numerous others who were anxious to be employed on this occasion.
The mode of fortifying or strengthening the ships was principally the same as that adopted on board the Isabella and Alexander in 1818 *. The Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty were pleased to direct the Navy and Victualling Boards to furnish every thing which the experience of the former voyage had suggested as necessary, and during the whole progress of our fitting, I received the greatest attention and assistance from those Boards, who most readily com- plied with every wish expressed by me for the more complete equipment of the ships.
The mode of rigging the vessels was that of a barque, as being the most convenient among the ice, and requiring the smallest number of men to work them ; a consideration of no little importance, where it was a material object to sail with as few persons as possible, in order to extend our resources to the utmost. The Hecla's mizen-topsail was, therefore, taken away, and the mizen-mast, top-mast, gaff, and driver-boom length- ened, so as to make up, by a large driver and gaflF-topsail, nearly the same quantity of after-sail as before ; the foremast and mainmast remaining the same as on the former establishment. By this al- * See the Narrative of the former Voyage.
IV INTRODUCTIOK.
teration we were enabled to put the ship's company into three watches, a regulation which is well known to tend very es- sentially to the health and comfort of seamen, while it serves also the important purpose of teaching them their own strength, and increasing their activity on occasions requiring more than ordinary exertion.
The ships were completely furnished with provisions and stores for a period of two years ; in addition to which, a large supply of fresh meats and soups, preserved in tin cases, by Messrs. Donkin and Gamble, of Burkitt's essence of malt and hops, and of the essence of spruce, was also put on board, besides a number of other extra stores adapted to cold climates and a long voyage. The anti- scorbutics consisted of lemon-juice (which forms a part of the daily rations on board His Majesty's ships), vinegar, sour-krout, pickles, and herbs ; and the whole of the provisions, which were of the very best quality, were stowed in tight casks, to preserve theni from moisture or other injury. As a matter of experiment, a small quantity of vinegar, in a highly- concentrated state, recommended and prepared by Doctor Bollman, was also put on board, and was found of essential service, the greater part of the com- mon kind being destroyed by the severity of the frost. In order to save stowage, only a small proportion of biscuit was received ; flour, which had been previously kiln-dried with great care, being substituted in its place. For the purpose of baking for the daily con- sumption of the crews during the winter months, a portable oven was furnished to the Hecla ; and after a good leaven had been once obtained, we found no difficulty in baking light and wholesome bread, even in the severest part of the season. The ships were ballasted
INTRODUCTION. .Y
entirely with coals, (of which the Hecla stowed seventy, and t||e Griper thirty-four chaldrons), together with such a quantity of fire- wood as was necessary for the stowage of the casks in the holds.
To add to our warmth, and to keep out the snow during the winter, a housing-cloth was prepared of the same materials as that with which waggons are usually covered, and which being laid on planks, supported amidships by spars lashed fore and aft between the masts, and resting with their lower ends on the gunwale, completely answered the purpose for which it was intended.
Care was taken to provide abundance of warm clothing, and one suit of the best quality was liberally furnished for each man employed in the Expedition, to be served gratis at my discretion. Among the numerous articles of this kind which con- tributed essentially to our comfort, a wolf-skin blanket was supplied for each officer and man, which, in addition to those of the common sort, effectually kept the people warm in their beds, although from the necessary economy in fuel, the temperature of the decks was frequently much below the freezing point during the nights.
To be prepared against the chances of meeting with any natives in the countries which we were about to visit, the ships were directed to be furnished with a large quantity of various kinds of presents, both to se- cure their friendship, and to purchase any supplies of which we might stand in need. In short, nothing was omitted which could in any degree tend to the success of the enterprise, or to the health, con- venience, and comfort of those engaged in it. I feel myself par- ticularly indebted to the kindness of Commissioner Cunningham, and the officers employed under him in the different departments
VI INTRODUCTION.
of the dock-yard at Deptford, in complying with, and even anti- cipating, my wishes for the promotion of these objects. My thanks are also due, in an especial manner to my friend Captain Henry Garrett, agent victualler at that port, whose ready attention to all our wants in his public department, could only be equalled by the warm hospitality we experienced from him during the time of our equipment.
While care was thus taken that nothing should be wanting to ensure the success of the Expedition in its main object, the improvement of geography and navigation, as well as the general jnterests of science, were considered as of scarcely less importance. For this purpose, a number of valuable instruments, (of which a list is subjoined), were furnished to each ship ; and Captain Sabine, of the Royal Artillery, who was recommended by the President and Council of the Royal Society, was embarked on board the Hecla, as Astronomer to the Expedition.
Previously to our leaving Deptford, the ships were visited by Viscount Melville, who presided at the Admiralty, as well as by several of the Lords Commissioners, and by the Comptroller of the Navy, who were pleased to express their satisfaction at the manner in which their directions and intentions had been complied with in the general equipment of the Expedition. On the 2d of May, I repaired to the Admiralty, to receive their Lordships' final Instructions for the conduct of the Expedition, a copy of which immediately precedes the Narrative.
INTRODUCTION. VII
List of the Instruments^ ^c. embarked on board each of the two Ships.
Those marked with an Asterisk were furnished to the Hecla only.
* 2 Astronomical Clocks, with stands.
11 Chronometers on board the Hecla, and four on board the Griper.
* 1 Transit instrument.
* 1 Portable observatory.
* 1 Repeating circle.
1 Dipping-needle. * A second ditto, the property of Henry Browne, esq.
* 1 Instrument for magnetic force, on Captain Kater's improved
construction.
* 1 Variation transit.
* 1 Variation needle.
4 Azimuth compasses, on Captain Kater's improved construction.
1 Dip-sector, invented by Dr. Wollaston.
2 Mountain barometers. 2 Marine ditto.
2 Altitude instruments, invented by Captain Kater. i Theodolite.
2 Anglometers.
1 Circular protractor.
3 Artificial horizons. 1 Hydrometer.
1 Water-bottle, invented by Dr. Marcet. 10 Thermometers.
* 4f Self-registering ditto, (Sixe's), with iron cases for fastening to
the deep-sea lead.
* 2 Electrometers, with chains.
Together with a complete set of drawing instruments, scales, beam- compasses, <^c. for the construction of charts.
Viil INTRODUCTION.
'f?5' On our return to England, in the beginning of November, 1820, all the journals, logs, charts, and drawings, which had been furnished by every individual belonging to the Expedition, were delivered to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, to be at their disposal; and their Lordships were pleased immediately to direct them to be returned into my hands, for the purpose of preparing for publication, under their authority, an official account of the voyage.
In performing this duty, it has been my earnest endeavour equally to avoid, on the one hand, a too minute and tedious detail of occur- rences, which, as the materials for a future account, properly form a part of a manuscript journal, but which, if given in their original form, would only serve to tire by their repetition ; and on the other, to omit nothing which came under my notice,' and that may be con- sidered interesting, either by the scientific or the general reader. It
;>^*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 Expedition<Lt It consists of a strong and heavy cylindrical box of cast iron, having a small aperture at each end ; through these apertures passes a bolt which, when let down into its place, completely closes them, but when held up by means of a catch in the upper part of the box, o allows the water to pass through them freely, both at the top and,>2 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<!^i hmmlkf -■
EXPLANATION OF TECHNICAL TERMS
MADE USE OF IN THE COURSE OF THE FOLLOWING NARRATIVE.
Bay-Ice. — Ice newly formed upon the surface.
Beset. — The situation of a ship, when so closely surrounded by ice, as to prevent her sailing about.
Bight. — An indentation in a floe of ice, like a bay, by which name it is sometimes called.
Blink. — A peculiar brightness in the atmosphere which is almost always perceptible in approaching ice, or land covered with snow. — Land-blink is usually more yellow than that of ice.
Bore. — The operation of " boring" through loose ice consists in entering it under a press of sail, and forcing the ship through by separating the masses.
Clear Water. — The sea unincumbered with ice.
Crow's-]^ EST. — A circular house, like a cask^ fixed at the mast-head, in which the look- out man sits, either to guide the ship through the ice, or to give notice of whales.
Dock. — An artificial dock is formed by cutting out with saws a square space in a thick floe, in which a ship is placed, in order to secure her from the pressure of other masses which are seen to be approaching, and which might otherwise endanger her being " nipped." — A " natural dock" is simply a small bight, accidentally found under similar circumstances.
Field. — A sheet of ice, generally of great thickness, and of such extent that its limits cannot be seen from a ship's mast-head.
Floe. — The same as a field, except that its extent can be distinguished from a ship's mast- head.— A " bay-floe" is a floe of ice newly formed upon the surface.
A Hole, or Pool of Wa ter. — A small space of clear water, surrounded by ice on
every side.
Land Ice. — Ice attached to the land, either in floes, or in heavy grounded masses, forced up near the shore by external pressure.
XVIU EXPLANATION OF TECHNICAL TERMS.
A Lead. — A channel through the ice. — A ship is said to take a right lead, when she follows that channel which conducts her into a clear, or at least, a navigable sea, and vice versa.
Nipped. — To be forcibly pressed between two or more masses of ice.
A Pack. — A large body of loose ice, whose extent caimot be seen.
A Patch of Ice. — The same as a pack, but of small dimensions.
Sailjng-Ice. — Ice of which the masses are so much separated, as to allow a ship to sail among them without great difficulty.
A Tongue. — A mass of ice projecting under water, in a horizontal direction, from an ice- berg or floe. — A ship sometimes grazes, or is set fast on a tongue of ice, which may, however, generally be avoided, being easily seen in smooth water.
A Water-Ukt. — A certain dark appearance of the sky which indicates clear water in that direction, and which, when contrasted with the blink over ice, or land, is very conspicuous.
Young Ice. — The same as bay-ice.
su'MmiXiSV '■'i^
OFFICIAL INSTRUCTIONS.
By the Commissioners for executing the Office of Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, <^c. ^c.
Whereas we have thought fit to appoint you to the command of an Expedition, for the purpose of endeavouring to discover a North- West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean ; you are hereby required and directed to put to sea in the Hecla, and, in company with the Griper, which, with her commander Lieutenant Liddon, has been placed under your orders, make the best of your way to the entrance of Davis' Strait.
On your arrival in this Strait, your further proceedings must be regulated chiefly by the position and extent of the ice; but, on finding it sufficiently open to permit your approach to the western shores of the Strait, and your advance to the northward as far as
XX OFFICIAL INSTRUCTIONS.
the opening into Sir James Lancaster's Sound, you are to proceed in the first instance to that part of the coast, and use your best endeavours to explore the bottom of that Sound ; or, in the event of its proving a strait opening to the westward, you are to use all possible means, consistently with the safety of the two ships, to pass through it, and ascertain its direction and communications ; and if it should be found to connect itself with the northern sea, you are to make the best of your way to Behring's Strait.
Ifj however, you should ascertain that there is no passage through Sir James Lancaster's Sound, but that it is enclosed by continuous land, or so completely blocked up with ice as to afford no hope of a passage through it, you are in that case to proceed to the north- ward, and in like manner examine Alderman Jones's Sound. Fail- ing to find a passage through this Sound, you are to make the best of your way to Sir Thomas Smith's Sound, which is described by Baffin as the largest in the whole bay; and carefully explore, as far as practicable, every part of it, as well as of any strait you may discover, leading from it into any other sea. On failing to make a passage through this Sound, you are to return to the southward down Baffin's Bay, and endeavour to make your way through Cum- berland Strait, or any opening in that neighbourhood which may lead you to the seas adjoining the eastern or northern coast of America ; you are then, by whatever course you may have reached these seas, to pursue your voyage along that coast, to the northward or westward to Behring's Strait. .tAf-fp^sMVi-v.fti ^^■fiffir,^'^fif^f.,^^ iUiWe have hitherto supposed that, on your first arrival in Davis' Strait, the navigation to the northward shall be found practicable. If, however, you should find the contrary to be the case, and that
OFFICIAL INSTRUCTIONS.
the sea towards the western side of the Strait is so loaded with ice, as to render it difficult and dangerous for the ships to proceed so far to the northward as Lancaster Sound, at so early a period of the season ; it may be advisable, in that case, to endeavour in the first instance, to examine Cumberland Strait, or any other opening that may be likely to ^bring you to the eastern coast of America, in preference to the loss of time and the danger to the ships, which might be occasioned in persevering too anxiously in the at- tempt to get to Lancaster Sound; and should you, on your first reaching Davis' Strait, find it to be impracticable to make your way up the western side of the Strait to that Sound, or even to Cumberland Strait, you will understand, that you are at liberty to proceed towards those places, going round by a more easterly track, if the state of the ice, and all other circumstances, should induce you to think it most advisable to do so. Thus, although the track, which we wish you to pursue, if practicable, is pointed out ; you will, nevertheless, perceive, that the course to be finally adopted by you for getting to the northward, is, in fact, left to your own discretion, on a careful examination into the state of the ice on your arrival in Davis' Strait ; always bearing in mind, that, it is an important object of the Expedition, that Lancaster Sound be thoroughly examined by you, and afterwards those of Jones and Smith, if you should have failed in previously finding a passage to the westward. . :, .;
Should you be so successful as to find a passage to the westward,' it will be advisable to make the best of your way, without stopping to examine any part of the northern coast of America, to Behring's Strait; and if you should fortunately accomplish your passage
XXll OFFICIAL INSTRUCTIONS.
through that Strait, you are then to proceed to Kamtschatka (if you think you can do so without risk of being shut up by the ice on that coast), for the purpose of deliv.ering to the Russian Governor, duplicates of all the Journals and other documents which the passage may have supplied, with a request that they may be forwarded over-land to St. Petersburgh, to be conveyed from thence to London. From Kamtschatka you will proceed to the Sandwich Islands, or Canton, or such other place as you may think proper, to refit the ships and refresh the crews ; and, if during your stay at such place, a safe opportunity should occur of sending papers to England, you should send duplicates by such conveyance. And, after having re- fitted and refreshed, you are to lose no time in returning to England, by such route as you may deem most convenient.
If, at any period of your voyage, but particularly after you shall haye doubled the north-eastern extremity of America, the season shall be so far advanced as to make it unsafe to navigate the ships, on account of the long nights having set in, and the sea not being free from ice ; and the health of your crews, the state of the ships, and all concurrent circumstances, should combine to induce you to form the resolution of wintering in those regions, you are to use your best eji* deavours to discover a sheltered and safe harbour, where the ships may be placed in security for the winter; taking such measures for the health and comfort of the people committed to your charge, as the materials with which you are supplied for housing-in the ships, or hutting the men on shore, may enable you to do. And, if you shall find it expedient to resort to this measure, and you should meet with any inhabitants, either Esquimaux or Indians, near the place where you winter, you are to endeavour, by every means in your power, to
OFFICIAL INSTRUCTIONS. XXIII
»
cultivate a friendship with them, by making them presents of sucli articles as you may be supplied with, and which may be useful or agreeable to them. You will, however, take care not to suffer yourself to be surprised by them, but use every precaution, and be constantly on your guard against any hostility. \*'o'- ^
You will endeavour to prevail on them, by such reward, and to be paid in such manner, as you may think best to answer the purpose, to carry to any of the settlements of the Hudson's Bay Company, or of the North- West Company, an account of your situation and pro- ceedings ; with an urgent request that it may be forwarded to England with the utmost possible despatch.
In an undertaking of this description, much must, of course, be always left to the discretion of the commanding officer ; and, as the objects of this Expedition have been fully explained to you, and you have already had some experience on service of this nature, we are con- vinced we cannot do better than leave it to your judgment, when on the spot, in the event of your not making a passage this season, either to winter on the coast, with the view of following up next season, any hopes or expectations which your observations this year may lead you to entertain, or to return to England, to report to us the result of such observations; always recollecting our anxiety for the health, comfort, and safety of yourself, your officers, and men ; and further considering how far the advantage of starting next season from an advanced position, may not be counter-balanced by what may be suffered during the winter, and by the want of such re- freshment and refitting, as would be afforded by your return to England. ^^, We deem it right to caution you against suffering the two
XXIV OFFICIAL INSTRUCTIONS.
vessels placed under your orders to separate, except in the event of accident or unavoidable necessity, and we desire you to keep up the most unreserved communications with the commander of the Griper; placing in him every proper confidence, and ac- quainting him with the general tenor of your orders, and with your views and intentions, from time to time, in the execution of them; that the service may have the full benefit of your united efi"orts in the prosecution of such a service; and that, in the event of unavoidable separation, or of any accident to yourself, Lieutenant Liddon may have the advantage of knowing, up to the latest practicable period, all your ideas and inten- tions, relative to a satisfactory completion of this interesting under- taking.
'f* We also recommend, that as frequent an exchange take place, as conveniently may be, of the observations made in the two ships ; that any scientific discovery made by the one be, as quickly as possible, communicated for the advantage and guidance of the other, in making their future observations ; and to increase the chance of the observations of both being preserved. ;'«i We have caused a great variety of valuable instruments to be put on board the ships under your orders ; of which you will be furnished with a list, and for the return of which you will be held responsible ; and we have also, at the recommendation of the President and Council of the Royal Society, ordered to be received on board the Hecla, Captain Sabine, of the Royal Artillery, who is represented to us as a gentleman well skilled in Astronomy, Natural History, and various branches of knowledge, to assist you in making such observations as may tend to the improvement of Geography and Navigation, and the
OFFICIAL INSTRUCTIONS. XXV
advancement of science in general. Amongst other subjects of scien- tific inquiry, you will particularly direct your attention to the variation and inclination of the magnetic needle, and the intensity of the mag- netic force ; you will endeavour to ascertain how far the needle may be affected by the atmospherical electricity, and what effect may be produced on the electrometer and magnetic needle on the appearance of the Aurora Borealis. You will keep a correct register of the tem- perature of the air, and of the sea, at the surface and at different depths. You will cause the dip of the horizon to be frequently observed by the dip sector, invented by^ Dr. Wollaston ; and ascer- tain what effect may be produced by measuring that dip across fields of ice, as compared with its measurement across the surface of the open sea. You will also cause frequent observations to be made for ascertaining the refraction, and what effect may be produced by observing an object, either celestial or terrestrial, over a field of ice, as compared with objects observed over a surface of water : together with such other meteorological remarks as you may have opportunities of making. You are to attend particularly to the height, direction, and strength of the tides, and to the set and velocity of the currents ; the depth and soundings of the sea, and the nature of the bottom ; for which purpose you are supplied with an instrument better calcu- lated to bring up substances than the lead usually employed for this purpose.
And you are to understand, that although the finding a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific is the main object of this Expedition, yet, that the ascertaining the correct position of the different points of the land on the western shores of Baffin's Bay, and the different observa- tions you may be enabled to make with regard to the magnetic influ-
(I
XXVI OFFICIAL INSTRUCTIONS.
ence in that neighbourhood, supposed to be so near the position of one of the great magnetic poles of the earth, as well as such other observations as you may have opportunities of making in Natural History, Geography, ^c, in parts of the globe, ^c, little known, must prove most valuable and interesting to the science of our country; and we, therefore, desire you to give your unremitting attention, and to call that of all the officers under your command, to these points; as being objects likely to prove of almost equal import- ance to the principal one before-mentioned, of ascertaining whether there exist any passage to the northward, from the one ocean to the other.
For the purpose, not only of ascertaining the set of the currents in the Arctic Seas, but also of affording more frequent chances of hear- ing of your progress, we desire that you do, frequently after you have passed the latitude of 65° north, and once every day, when you shall be in an ascertained current, throw overboard a bottle, closely sealed, and containing a paper stating the date and position at which it is launched ; and you will give similar orders to the Commander of the Griper, to be executed in case of separation ; and, for this purpose, we have caused each ship to be supplied with papers, on which is printed, in several languages, a request, that whoever may find it should take measures for transmitting it to this office.
And although you are not to be drawn aside from the main object of the service on which you are employed, as long as you may be enabled to make any progress ; yet, whenever you may be impeded by the ice, or find it necessary to approach the coasts of the continent or islands, you are to cause views of bays, harbours, headlands, ^c, to be carefully taken, to illustrate and explain the track of the vessels.
' OFFICIAJ* INSTRUCTIONS. XXVll
or such charts as you may be able to make ; in which duty you will be assisted by Lieutenants Beechey and Hoppner, whose skill in drawing is represented to be so considerable, as to supersede the necessity of appointing professional draughtsmen.
You are to make use of every means in your power to collect and preserve such specimens of the animal, mineral, and vegetable king- doms, as you can conveniently stow on board the ships ; and of the larger animals you are to cause accurate drawings to be made, to accompany and elucidate the descriptions of them : in this, as well as in every other part of your scientific duty, we trust that you will receive material assistance from Captain Sabine. .^
In the event of any irreparable accident happening to either of the two ships, you are to cause the officers and crew of the disabled ship to be removed into the other ; and with her singly to proceed in pro- secution of the voyage, or return to England, according as circum- stances shall appear to require ; understanding that the officers and crews of both ships are hereby authorized and required to continue to perform their duties, according to their respective ranks and stations, on board either ship to which they may be so removed, in the event of an occurrence of this nature. Should, unfortunately, your own ship be the one disabled, you are, in that case, to take the command of the Griper ; and, in the event of any fetal accident happening to yourself, Lieutenant Liddon is hereby authorized to take the command of the Hecla, placing the officer of the Expedition, who may then be next in seniority to him in command of the Griper ; also, in the event of your own inability by sickness or otherwise, at any period of this service, to continue to carry these Ipstructions into execution, you are t^ transfer them to the officer the next in conunand to you employed
OFFICIAL INSTRUCTIONS.
on the Expedition, who is hereby required to execute them in the.uf best manner he can, for the attainment of the several objects in ft, view.
His Majesty's Government having appointed Lieutenant Franklin to the command of an expedition to explore the northern coast of North America, from the mouth of the Copper-mine River of Hearne ; it would be desirable, in the event of your touching on that coast, to leave some testimonial of your having been there, with the date, and such circumstances as you may find convenient, for the lieutenant's information ; and you will do the same wherever you may stop on that coast, by erecting a pole, having a flag, or some other mark by which it may be distinguished at a distance, (and you should endea- vour to place such mark on the situation in which it may be most ex- tensively visible,) and burying a bottle at the foot of it, or otherwise, containing an abstract of your proceedings and future intentions ; corresponding instructions having been given to Lieutenant Franklin to leave a similar notice at any convenient part of the coast which he may discover between the mouth of the said river and the eastern part of North America.
You are, while executing the service pointed out in these Instruc- tions, to take every opportunity that may offer of acquainting our Secretary, for our information, with your progress : and on your arrival in England, you are immediately to repair to this office, in order to lay before us a full account of your proceedings in the whole course of your voyage ; taking care, before you leave the ship, to demand from the officers, petty officers, and all other persons on board, the logs and journals they may have kept ; together with any drawings or charts they may have made ; which are all to be sealed up ; and
OFFICIAL INSTRUCTIONS.
XXIX
and you will issue similar directions to Lieutenant Liddon and his '^ officers, i^c. ; the said logs, journals, or other documents, to be there- > 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 > <byeasttoS.E.bE.5 |
Light airs; occasional calms. |
|
22 |
45 |
34 |
39.75 |
33 |
1.0183 |
58 |
29.62 |
29.58 |
29.605 |
East |
Light airs and fine clear weather. |
|
23 |
36 |
29 |
31.50 |
31.4 |
1.0252 |
55 |
29.70 |
29.62 |
29.665 |
N.W. b. W. |
Light breezes and foggy. |
|
24 |
37 |
31 |
33.75 |
31.4 |
29.83 |
29.60 |
29.7.-,9 |
N.N.W. |
Light airs and foggy. |
||
|
25 |
40 |
32 |
35.42 |
31.3 |
29.89 |
29.84 |
29.870 |
Westerly. |
Light breezes and fine clear weather |
||
|
20 |
35 |
28 |
32.33 |
31.9 |
1.0185 |
59 |
29.85 |
29.82 |
29.838 |
■ s-t |
Light breezes and foggy weather. |
|
27 |
35 |
33 |
33.75 |
32.0 |
29.00 |
29.74 |
29.842 |
S.E. b.E. |
Moderate breezes and hazy weather. |
||
|
23 29 30 |
33 37 38 |
33 33 33 |
33.00 34.25 36.25 |
31.7 33.1 34.8 |
1.0240 1.0242 1.0255 |
59 59 53 |
29.71 , 29.52 29.54 |
29.53 29.49 2^.51 |
29.615 29.507 29.525 |
S.E.b.S. East N.N.W. |
Fresh breezes and hazy, with continued heavy lain. Fresh breezes and foggy, with rain at times. Fresh breezes and fine. |
|
31 |
43 |
35 |
37.08 |
32.6 |
1.0250 |
65 |
29.51 |
29.50 |
29.505 |
N.W.b.W. |
Ditto. |
|
46 |
26 |
33.51 |
32.68 |
1 29.93 |
29.10 |
29.687 |
1 |
>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- <y^ty/llJ ■^ilL'HCi//l£/ll .
F. W:£eechry del.
i/t^yi&i ^4i(^/ia;7i&/?^^-f. /c°/f.
OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 31
both sides of the Sound, and the difference in the character of the two shores 1819. was very apparent, that on the south consisting of high and peaked moun- ^^^^' tains, completely snow-clad, except on the lower parts, while the northern coast, has generally a smoother outline, and had comparatively with the other, little snow upon it ; the difference in this last respect, appearing to depend principally on the difference in their absolute height. The sea was open before us, free from ice or land ; and the Hecla pitched so much from the westerly swell in the course of the day, as to throw the water once or twice into the stern windows, a circumstance which, together with other appearances, we were willing to attribute to an open sea in the desired direction. More than forty black whales were seen during the day.
We had alternately fresh breezes from the westward, and calms on the morn- Tues. 3. ing of the 3d, when we had only gained eight or nine miles upon the Griper, which we observed coming up the Sound before an easterly wind, with all her studding sails set, while we had a fresh breeze from the westward. In the fore-noon we were between Capes Warrender and Osborn, and had a good view of Sir George Hope's Monument, which proved to be a dark- looking and conspicuous hill on the main land, and not an island, as it appeared to be when at a distance, on our former voyage.
A solitary iceberg being near us. Captain Sabine, Lieutenant Beechey, and Mr. Hooper, were sent upon it to observe the variation of the needle and the longitude, and to take angles for the survey, a base being measured by Massey's log between the ship and the berg. We here obtained soundino-s in three hundred and seventy-three fathoms, the bottom consisting of mud and small stones, of which a small quantity was brought up in the clamms. By a boat moored to this instrument, a tide or current was found to set north 65° E., at the rate of seven-eighths of a mile per hour; the variation observed upon the iceberg was 106° 58' 05" westerly. At noon, we were in latitude 74° 25' 31", long. 80° 04' 30".
Being favoured at length by the easterly breeze which was bringing up the Griper, and for which we had long been looking with much impatience, a crowd of sail was set to carry us with all rapidity to the westward. It is more easy to imagine than to describe the almost breathless anxiety which was now visible in every countenance, while, as the breeze increased to a fresh gale, we ran quickly up the sound. The mast-heads were crowded by the officers and men during the whole afternoon ; and an unconcerned observer, if any could have been unconcerned on such an occasion, would have been amused bv the
32 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY
eagerness with which the various reports from the crow's nest were received, all, however, hitherto favourable to our most sanguine hopes.
Between four and six P. M., we passed several riplings on the Avater, as if occasioned by a weather tide, but no bottom could be found with the hand- leads. Being now abreast of Cape Castlereagh, more distant land was seen to open out to the westward of it, and between the cape and this land was per- ceived an inlet, to which I have given the name of the Navy Board's Inlet. We saw points of land apparently all round this inlet, but being at a very great distance from it we were unable to determine whether it was continuous or not. But as the land on the western side appeared so much lower and smoother than that on the opposite side near Cape Castlereagh, and came down, so near the horizon, about the centre of the inlet, the general impression was, that it is not continuous in that part. As our business lay to the westward, however, and not to the south, the whole of this extensive inlet was, in a few hours, lost in distance.
In the mean time the land had opened out, on the opposite shore, to the northward and westward of Cape Warrender, consisting of high mountains, and in some parts of table land. Several head-lands were here distinctly made out, of which the northernmost and most conspicuous, was named after Captain Nicholas Lechmere Pateshall, of the Royal Navy. The extensive bay into which Cape Pateshall extends, and which, at the distance we passed it, appeared to be broken, or detached in many parts, was named Croker's Bay in honour of Mr. Croker, Secretary of the Admi- ralty ; I have called this large opening a bay, though the quickness with which we sailed past it did not allow us to determine the absolute continuity of land round the bottom of it ; it is, therefore, by no means improbable, that a passage may here be one day found from Sir James Lancaster's Sound into the Northern Sea. The Cape, which lies on the Avfestern side of Croker's Bay, was named after Sir Everard Home.
Our course was nearly due west, and the wind still continuing to freshen, took us in a few hours nearly out of sight of the Griper. The only ice which we met with consisted of a few large bergs very much washed by the sea ; and, the weather being remarkably clear, so as to enable us to run with perfect safety, we were, by midnight, in a great measure relieved from our anxiety respecting the supposed continuity of land at the bottom of this magnificent inlet, having reached the longitude of 83° 12', where the two shores are still above thirteen leagues apart, without the slightest appear-
■ ir
r4 ,T^,^>>',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 <?/c:^^^ J/a7^ ^S^ncad^^ oCtiTzJ, .^ ^ Coj^utit,/ ^ 6. 'ii^fi^nJ^'>
iwiwf"^m iv -r'^ „/->-•"; 'r,„/Mr~mf
L, Z^;^ ^/up>v of ^a-i^t<?tiv ^/rtu/: ^~ ^'e^iytcn^ ^crm..
'»€**»»&%»..
t^cTitimia^Zc-'n cf tAe a./-ei'i
W.BeecAty dt!.
I. Clcv"k sculp.
Z..'naon.TuMished 3j I . ifurraj , imi .
OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. * 33
ance of any land to the westward of us for four or five points of the compass. ^^^^•
, . August.
The colour of the water having become rather lighter, we hove-to at this
time for the Griper, and obtained soundings in one hundred and fifty fathoms on a muddy bottom. The wind increased so much as to make it necessary to close-reef the sails, and to get the top-gallant yards down, and there was a breaking sea from the eastward. A great number of whales were seen in the course of this day's run.
Having made the ship snug, so as to be in readiness to round to, should Wed. 4. the land be seen a-head, and the Griper having come up within a few miles of us, we again bore up at one A.M. At half-past three, Lieutenant Beechey, who had relieved me on deck, discovered from the crow's-nest, a reef of rocks, in-shore of us to the northward, on which the sea was breaking. These breakers appeared to lie directly off a cape, which we named after Rear-Admiral Joseph Bullen, and which lies immediately to the eastward of an inlet, that I named Brooking Cuming Inlet. As the sea had now become high, and the water appeared discoloured at some distance without the breakers, the Hecla was immediately rounded to, for the purpose of sounding ; we could find no bottom with fifty fathoms of line, but the Griper coming up shortly after, obtained soundings in seventy-five fathoms, on a bottom of sand and mud. We here met with innumerable loose masses of ice, upon which the sea was constantly breaking, in a manner so much resembling the breakers on shoals, as to make it a matter of some little uncertainty at the time, whether those of which I have spoken above, might not also have been caused by ice. It is possible, therefore, that shoal water may not be found to exist in this place ; but I thought it right to mark the spot on the chart to warn future navigators when approaching this part of the coast. That there is something out of the common way in this neighbour- hood, appears, however, more than probable, from the soundings obtained by the Griper, which are much less than we found them in any other part of the Sound at the same distance from land.
At seven A.M., there being less sea, and no appearance of broken or dis- coloured water, we again bore away to the westward, the Griper having joined us about the meridian of 85°, which had been appointed as our place of rendezvous. Since the preceding evening, a thick haze had been hanging over the horizon to the southward, which prevented our seeing the land in that direction, to the westward of 87°, while the whole of the northern shore, though, as it afterwards proved, at a greater distance from us, was distinctly
F
34 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY
1819. visible. At noon, being in latitude 74° 15' 53" N., longitude, by chrono- \.-"v-H^ meters, 86° 30' 30", we were near two inlets, of which the easternmost was named Burnet Inlet, and the other Stratton Inlet. The land between these two had very much the appearance of an island. We rounded to, for the purpose of sounding, as well as to wait for our consort, and found no bottom with one hundred and seventy fathoms of line, the water being of a dirty light-green colour. The cliffs on this part of the coast present a sin- Wed. 4. gular appearance, being stratified horizontally, and having a number of regular projecting masses of rock, broad at the bottom, and coming to a point at the top, resembling so many buttresses, raised by art at equal in- tervals. This very remarkable constructure, which continues with little varia- tion along the whole of this northern shore, will be best understood by the accompanying views by Lieutenant Beechey, which, from the accuracy with ' which the coast is delineated, will, I doubt not, be considered equally valuable by the geologist and the seaman.
After lying-to for an hour, we again bore up to the westward, and soon after discovered a caf>e, 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'i</ 6^/ Cu/^e r^^.^^-/"
Xondon. TaiUshed fy Z.MuTi^ciy, I<P2I .
OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 35
hope, that it would prove a detached stream, from which no obstruction to 1819. our progress westerly was to be apprehended. At twenty minutes past
ten, however, the weather having become hazy, and the wind light, we perceived that the ice, along which we had been sailing for the last two hours, Avas joined, at the distance of half a mile to the westward of us, to a compact and impenetrable body of floes, which lay across the whole breadth of the strait, formed by the island, and the western point of Maxwell Bay. We hauled our wind, to the northward, just in time to avoid being embayed in the ice, on the outer edge of which a considerable surf, the effect of the late gale, was then rolling. A second island was dis- covered to the southward of the former, to both of which I gave the name of Prince Leopold's Isles, in honour of his Royal Highness Prince Leopold OF Saxe Coburg. Immediately to the eastward of these islands, there was a strong water sky, indicating a considerable extent of open sea, but a bright ice blink to the westward afforded little hope, for the present, of finding a passage in the desired direction. We saw to-day, for the first time, a number of white whales ; fDelphinus Albicans ;J guillemots, fulmar petrels, and kittiwakes, were also numerous near the ice.
The easterly wind died aAvay on the morning of the 5th, and was sue- Thurs. 5. ceeded by light and variable airs, with thick, snoAvy weather. At noon we were in lat. 74° 19' 38", long. 89° 18' 40", the soundings being one hundred and thirty-five fathoms, on a muddy bottom. At half-past ten we tried whether there were any current, and if so, in what direction it might be setting, by mooring a boat to the bottom, with the deep-sea clamms ; but none could be detected. An hour before, the same experiment had been tried on board the Griper, when Lieutenant Liddon found the current to be setting east, at the rate of nine miles per day. While the calm and thick weather lasted, a number of the officers and men amused themselves in the boats, in endeavouring to kill some of the white whales which were swimming about the ships in great numbers ; but the animals were so wary, that they would scarcely suffer the boats to approach them within thirty or forty yards without diving. Mr. Fisher described them to be generally from eighteen to twenty feet in length ; and he stated, that he had several times heard them emit a shrill, ringing sound, not unlike that of musical glasses when badly played. This sound, he further observed, was most distinctly heard, when they happened to swim directly beneath the boat, even when they were several feet under wafer, and ceased altoo-ether
36 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY
1819. on their coming to the surface. We saw also, for the farst time, one or two Ji^' .shoals of narwhals, (Monodon MortocerosJ called by the sailors, sea-unicorns. A steady breeze springing up from the W.N.W. in the afternoon, the ships stood to the northward, till we had distinctly made out, that no passage to the westward could at present be found between the ice and the land. The weather having become clear about this time, we perceived that there was a large open space to the southward, where no land was visible; and for this opening, over which there was a dark water-sky, our course was now directed. It fell calm again, however, in a few hours, so that at noon, Frid. 6. on the 6th, we were still abreast of Prince Leopold's Islands, which were so surrounded by ice, that we could not approach them nearer than four or five miles. . The appearance of these islands is not less remarkable than that of the northern shore of the strait, being also stratified horizontally, but having none of those buttress-like projections before described. The different strata form so many shelves, as it were, on which the snow lodges ; so that, imme- diately after a fall of snow, the islands appear to be striped with white and brown alternately. The northernmost island, when seen from the E.N.E., appears like a level piece of table-land, being quite perpendicular at each extreme.
The Griper having unfortunately sprung both her topmasts, Lieut. Liddon took advantage of the calm weather to shift them. The Hecla's boats were at the same time employed in bringing on board ice, to be used as water ; a measure to which it is occasionally necessary to resort in these regions, when no pools or ponds are to be found upon the floes. In this case, berg- ice, when at hand, is generally preferred ; but that of floes, which is in fact the ice of sea-water, is also abundantly used for this purpose : the only pre- caution which it is necessary to observe, being that of allowing the salt water to drain off before it is dissolved for use. One of our boats was upset by^ the fall of a mass of ice which the men were breaking, but fortunately no injury was sustained.
A breeze sprung up from the N.N.W. in the evening, and the Griper being ready to make sail, we stood to the southward. The land, which now became visible to the south-east, discovered to us, that we were entering a large inlet, not less than ten leagues wide at its mouth, and in the centre of which no land could be distinguished. The western shore of the inlet, which extended as far as we could see to the S.S.W., was so encumbered with ice, that there was no possibility of sailing near it. I, therefore, ran
,y/^_i ,-y,'^//Ai-'/n/,?a^'^if yf^/^r^ V^tvv^r/'r^ ,_y^/<7m/.j.
■y/ie^ \iy(/uff/M(-j'' (jc ^/i'//<-^ '^^yy/r'^t/j -Jj^^^iy.' , '",4v/?/-'^y .. '- '}2' /I . '
^/ra' r// ' '/'v'^ ^y^'r^/r//^''/ C^^fi<^' -^^-mt'//^ ',^yi/-et / /'taU^ cfcY^/// .
London, TtLblCshed fy I.M'u.r-ra^, 1S21.
OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 37
alonff the edge of the ice, between which and the eastern shore, there was 1819.
• Auffust
a broad and open channel, with the intention of seeking, in a lower latitude, ^^.^r^' a clearer passage to the westward than that which we had just been obliged to abandon lying between Prince Leopold's Isles, and Maxwell's Bay. The headland, which forms the western point of the entrance into this inlet, was honoured by the name of Cape Clarence, after His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence ; and another, to the south-eastward of this, was named after Sir Robert Seppings, one of the Surveyors of His Majesty's navy.
Since the time we first entered Sir James Lancaster's Sound, the sluggish- ness of the compasses, as well as the amount of their irregularity produced by the attraction of the ship's iron, had been found very rapidly, though uniformly, to increase, as we proceeded to the westward ; so much, indeed, that, for the last two days, we had been under the necessity of giving up altogether the usual observations for determining the variation of the needle on board the ships. This irregularity became more and more obvious as we now advanced to the southward. The rough magnetic bearing of the sun at noon, or at midnight, or when on the prime vertical, as compared with its true azimuth, was sufficient to render this increasing inefficiency of the compass quite apparent. For example, at noon this day, while we were observing the meridian altitude, the bearing of the sun was two points on the Hecla's larboard bow, and consequently her true course was about S.S.W. The binnacle and azimuth compasses at the same time agreed in shewing N.N. W. I W., making the variation to be allowed on that course, eleven points and-a-half westerly, corresponding nearly with an azimuth taken on the following morning, which gave 137° 12'. It was evident, therefore, that a very material change had taken place in the dip, or the variation, or in both these phenomena, since we had last an opportunity of obtaining observations upon them ; which rendered it not improbable that we were now making a very near approach to the magnetic pole. This supposition was further strengthened on the morning of the 7th ; when, having de- Sat. 7. creased our latitude to about 73°, we found that no alteration whatever in the absolute course on which the Hecla was steering, produced a change of more than three or four points in the direction indicated by the compass, which continued uniformly from N.N.E. to N.N.W., according as the ship's head was placed on one side or the other of the magnetic meridian. We now, therefore, witnessed, for the first time, the curious phenomenon of the directive power of the needle becoming so weak as to be completely over-
38 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERV
1819. eome by the attraction of the ship; so that the needle might now be properly Ji^!i^" said to point to the north pole of the ship. It was only, however, in those compasses in which the lightness of the cards, and great delicacy in the suspension, had been particularly attended to, that even this degree of uniformity prevailed ; for, in the heavier cards, the friction upon the points of suspension was much too great to be overcome even by the ship's at- traction, and they consequently remained indifferently in any position in which they happened to be placed. For the purposes of navigation, therefore, the compasses were from this time no longer consulted ; and in a few days afterwards, the binnacles were removed as useless lumber, from the deck to the carpenter s store-room, where they remained during the rest of the season, the azimuth compass alone being kept on deck, for the purpose of watching any changes which might take place in the directive power of the needle: and the true courses and direction of the wind were in future noted in the log- book, as obtained to the nearest quarter point, when the sun was visible, by the azimuth of that object and the apparent time.
Being desirous of obtaining all the magnetic observations we were able, on a spot which appeared to be replete with interest in this department of science, and the outer margin of the ice consisting entirely of small loose pieces, which were not sufficiently steady for using the dipping-needle, we hauled up for the nearest part of the eastern shore, for the purpose of landing there with the instruments. We got in with it about noon, having very regularly decreased our soundings from forty to fifteen and a half fathoms ; in which depth, having tacked, at the distance of two miles and a half from the shore, two boats were despatched from each ship, under the command of Lieutenants Beechey and Hoppner, who, together with Captain Sabine, were directed to make the ne- cessary observations, and to collect whatever specimens of natural history the place might afford. They landed on a beach of sand and stones, having passed, at the distance of one mile from it, several large masses of ice aground in six to eight fathoms' water, which shoaled from thence gradually in to the shore. The officers describe this spot as more barren and dreary than any on which they had yet landed in the arctic regions ; there being scarcely any appearance of vegetation, except here and there a small tuft of stunted grass, and one or two species of saxifrage and poppy, although the ground was so swampy in many places that they could scarcely walk about. This part of the coast is rather low, the highest hill near the landing-place being found, by geometrical mea- surement, to be only three hundred and eighty-eight feet above the level of the
OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 39
sea ; and there was at this time very little snow remaining upon it. The fixed 1819. rocks near the surface consist chiefly of lime-stone ; but quartz, granite and v^v^' hornblende occurred in detached lumps, most of which were incrusted with a thin coat of lime. The bed of a small stream, which ran between two rocks of lime-stone, was composed entirely of clay-slate. The temperature of this stream of water was 42|°, that of the air, in the shade, being 51 1°, and of the earth, two or three inches below the surface, 34|°. At a short distance from the sea, Lieutenant Hoppner discovered a large mass of iron-stone, which was found to attract the magnet very powerfully. There were no traces of inha- bitants to be seen on this part of the coast. Part of the vertebrae of a whale was found at some distance from the beach ; but this had probably been carried there by bears, the tracks of Avliom were visible on the moist soil. The only birds seen were a few ptarmigans fTetrao LagopusJ and snow buntings.
The latitude of the place of observation was 72° 45' 15", and its longitude, by the chronometers, SO^^l^S". The dipof the needle was 88° 26' 42", and the vari- ation 118° 23' 37" westerly. The directive powerof the horizontal needle, undis- turbed as it was by the attraction ofthe ship, was, even here, found to be so weak, in Captain Kater's azimuth-compasses, which were the most sensible, that they required constant tapping with the hand to make them traverse at all. At half- past one, when the boats landed, Lieut. Beechey found the tide ebbing, and it appeared, by the marks on the beach, to have fallen about eighteen inches. At fifty minutes past four, when they left the shore, it had fallen six feet and a half more, by which we considered the time of high water on that day to be about half-past twelve, and about twenty minutes past eleven on the full and change days of the moon. The whole rise of tide, being nearly the highest ofthe springs, appears to have been ten feet, and the ebb was found to set strong to the southward in-shore. A boat being moored to the bottom, at three miles' distance from the land, at five P.]\^. not the smallest current was perceptible. From these and several subsequent observations, there is good reason to suppose that the flood-tide comes from the south in this inlet. Be- fore the boats left the shore, a staff was erected on a hill near the landing- place, having a board nailed to it, on which the names of the ships and the date were painted ; and at three yards, in the direction of the magnetic north from the staffs, which may be distinguished with a glass at three miles' distance from the land, a bottle was buried, with a paper, containing an account of the time, and the object of our visit to this spot.
As soon as the boats returned on board, we bore up to the southward, run-
40 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY
1819. ning close along the edge of the ice, which led us nearer and nearer to the v>v%^ 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