malicious amusement; and when our people turn. ed away, literally unable to bear the sight without being sick, they would, as a good joke among them. selves, run after them, holding out a piece of blub. ber or raw seal's flesh, dripping with oil and filth, as if inviting them to partake of it. Both the men and women were guilty of still more disgusting indecencies, which seemed to afford them amazing diversion. A worse trait even than all these was displayed by two women alongside the Hecla, who, in a manner too unequivocal to be misunderstood, offered to barter their children for some article of trifling value, beginning very deliberately to strip them of their clothes, which they did not choose to consider as included in the intended bargain.

Upon the whole, it was impossible for us not to receive a very unfavourable impression of the gen. eral behaviour and moral character of the na. tives of this part of Hudson's Strait, who seem to have acquired, by an annual intercourse with our ships for nearly a hundred years, many of the vi. ces which unhappily attend a first intercourse with the civilized world, without having imbibed any of the virtues or refinements which adorn and render it happy.

Early on the morning of the 22d a number of canoes repeated their visit to us, the Esquimaux having hauled them upon a piece of ice to lodge for the night. In the forenoon an oomiak also came from the shore, and as no intercourse with them was permitted till after divine service, they became very impatient to barter their commodities, and walked on the ice alongside the ships, with a number of trifling things in their hands, vociferating

"pilletay" to such a degree that we could hardly near ourselves speak. Some more oil was obtained in exchange for pieces of iron hoop, and, at a quarter before noon, the wind coming more to the southward, and the ice being somewhat less close than before, we cast off and made sail up the strait.

The wind and ice combined to favour us more and more as we proceeded, the former both in strength and direction, and the latter by opening into loose streams, so that, for the first time since we entered Hudson's Strait, we were now enabled to set all the studding-sails, with some prospect of deriving advantage from them. The Hudson's Bay ships remained at anchor some time after we made sail, and in the course of the evening we finally lost sight of them. From this circum. stance, as well as from the unimpeded progress we had just begun to make to the westward, it was now only that we considered our voyage as having fairly commenced.

We continued, on the first of August, to beat to the westward, between Nottingham Island and the North Shore, the distance between which is about four leagues, and the latter fringed with numerous islands. In the course of the morning, several canoes and one oomiak came off from the mainland, containing about twenty persons, more than half of whom were women and children. They brought a little oil, some skin dresses, and tusks of the walrus, which they were willing to exchange for any trifle we chose to give them. They had also a number of toys of various kinds, such as canoes with their paddles, spears, and bows and arrows, all

on a very large scale. Many of the jackets of these people, and particularly those of the females, were lined with the skins of birds, having the feathers inside; and they had also in the boat several other skins in a prepared state, taken from the throat of the colymbus glacialis, which splendid bird, though we had twice found its skin in possession of the Esquimaux, we had yet not met with ourselves.

The expedition being now about to enter upon ground not hitherto explored, it became necessary for me to decide upon the route it would be most advantageous to pursue for the accomplishment of the principal objects pointed out in my instructions.

CHAPTER II.

Review of the Geographical Information obtained by the Researches of former Navigators on the Coast of the American Continent, in the Neighbourhood of Wager River.-Discover and enter the Duke of York's Bay, supposing it to be a Passage into the Sea called the Welcome.-Leave the Duke of York's Bay, and proceed to the Northwestward.-Passage of the Frozen Strait and Arrival in Repulse Bay.-Continuity of Land there-Observations on Shore-Remarks concerning the Geography, Tides, and Natural History of this part of the Continental Coast.

AFTER the most anxious consideration, I came to the resolution of attempting the direct passage of the Frozen Strait; though, I confess, not without some apprehension of the risk I was incurring, and of the serious loss of time which, in case of failure

either from the non-existence of the strait or from the insuperable obstacles which its name implies, would thus be inevitably occasioned to the expedi. tion.

The accounts given by Captain Middleton of the latitude of the western entrance of the Frozen Strait are so confused, and even contradictory, that the present appearance of the land perplexed me extremely in deciding whether or not we had arrived at the opposite end of the opening to which he had given that name. That immediately before us to the westward, though it agreed in latitude within five or six miles with the southernmost parallel he has assigned to it, appeared much too narrow to answer his description of the passage we were in search of. Upon the whole, however, I thought it most probable that this was the strait in question; and as, at all events, the opening between South. hampton Island and the land to the northward of it, in whatever latitude it might be found, and wheth. er wide or narrow, was the passage through which it was our present object to penetrate into Repulse Bay, I decided on using our utmost exertions to push through the narrow strait now before us.

On the morning of the 13th we observed some. thing very like smoke rising from about Cape Welsford, which, being confined to one spot, was thought likely to be occasioned by the fires of natives. Nothing could exceed the fineness of the weather about this time; the climate was, indeed, altogether so different from that to which we had before been accustomed in the icy seas, as to be a matter of constant remark. The days were temperate and clear, and the nights not cold, though a very thin

plate of ice was usually formed upon the surface of the sea in sheltered places, and in the pools of water upon the floes. After sunset we descried land, appearing very distant, through the middle of the strait, which we considered to be that on the American side of the Welcome. At this time, also, we observed some ice in the centre of the strait heavier than that which covered the rest of the sea, and apparently aground in shoal water, as afterward proved to be the case.

On the 15th we were within a league of a re. markable headland on Southampton Island, which I named CAPE BYLOT, as being probably the west. ernmost land seen by that navigator in 1615. In the mean time, the Hecla, still continuing very close. ly beset, had, in spite of every exertion, drifted back with the ice several miles to the northward and eastward, so that in the course of the evening we lost sight of her altogether. This latter circumstance was, however, owing in great measure to the extraordinary refraction upon the horizon, making terrestrial objects at the distance of six or seven miles appear flattened down or depressed, as well as otherwise much deformed.

At six P.M., having beat up within five or six miles of the entrance of the strait, and being anx. ious to sound the channel, which appeared narrow, but without any ice in it to offer us obstruction, I left the ship in the gig, accompanied by Mr. Ross, for this purpose.

The part of Southampton Island on which we landed is about a thousand feet high, and composed of gneiss. Every here and there along the shore, between the projecting points of rocks, is a small