have been carried thither by Esquimaux or by bears: three or four brace of ptarmigan were killed, and these were the only supply of this kind which we obtained. We found no indication of this part of the island having been inhabited, unless the narwhal's horn be considered as such.

The wind continued light and variable till half past eight A.M. on the 3d, when a breeze from the northward once more enabled us to make some progress. I was the more anxious to do so from having perceived that the main ice had, for the last twenty-four hours, been gradually, though slowly closing on the shore, thereby contracting the scarcely navigable channel in which we were sail. ing. The land which formed our western extreme was a low point, five miles to the westward of our place of observation the preceding day, which I named Point Ross, and the ice had already approached this point so much that there was considerable doubt whether any passage could be found between them. We had scarcely cleared the point when the wind failed us, and the boats were immediately sent ahead to tow, but a breeze springing up shortly after from the westward, obliged us to have recourse to another method of gaining ground, which we had not hitherto practised: this was by using small anchors and whale-lines as warps, by which means we made great progress, till, at forty minutes after noon, we were favoured by a fresh breeze, which soon took us into an open space of clear water to the northward and westward. A little to the westward of Point Ross there was a barrier of ice, composed of heavy masses firmly fixed to the ground at nearly regu

lar intervals for about a mile, in a direction paral. lel to the beach. At right angles to this a second tier projected, of the same kind of ice, extending to the shore, so that the two together formed a most complete harbour, within which, I believe, a ship might have been placed in case of necessity, without much danger from the pressure of the ex ternal floes of ice. It was natural for us to keep in view the possibility of our being obliged to pass the ensuing winter in such a harbour; and it must be confessed, that the apparent practicability of finding such tolerable security for the ships as this artificial harbour afforded, should we fail in dis covering a more safe and regular anchorage, added not a little to the confidence with which our operations were carried on during the remainder of the season.

At a quarter past nine P.M, we had the satis faction of crossing the meridian of 110° west from Greenwich, in the latitude of 74° 44′ 20′′; by which his majesty's ships under my orders be. came entitled to the sum of five thousand pounds, being the reward offered to such of his majesty's subjects as might succeed in penetrating thus far to the westward within the Arctic Circle. In or

der to commemorate the success which had hitherto attended our exertions, the bluff headland which we had just passed was subsequently called by the men BOUNTY CAPE; by which name I have there. fore distinguished it on the chart.

The wind increasing to a fresh gale from the northward in the afternoon, and the ice still continuing to oppose an impenetrable barrier to our farther progress, I determined to beat up to the

northern shore of the bay, and, if a tolerable road stead could be found, to drop our anchors till some change should take place. This was accordingly done at three P.M., in seven fathoms water. This roadstead, which I called the BAY OF THE HECLA AND GRIPER, affords very secure shelter with the wind from E.N.E. round by north to S. W., and we found it more free from ice than any other part of the southern coast of the island.

The Bay of the Hecla and Griper was the first spot where we had dropped anchor since leaving the coast of Norfolk; a circumstance which was rendered the more striking to us at the moment, as it appeared to mark, in a very decided manner, the completion of one stage of our voyage. The ensigns and pendants were hoisted as soon as we had anchored, and it created in us no ordinary feelings of pleasure to see the British flag waving for the first time in these regions, which had hitherto been considered beyond the limits of the habitable part of the world.

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 re turning 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.

As the wind still continued to blow strong from the northward on the morning of the 6th, without any appearance of opening a passage for us past Cape Hearne, I took the opportunity of sending all our boats from both ships at eight A.M., to bring on board a quantity of moss-peat which our gen. tlemen reported having found near a small lake at no great distance from the sea, and which I di rected to be substituted for part of our usual allow. ance of coals. Captain Sabine also went on shore to make the requisite observations; and several of the officers of both ships to sport, and to collect specimens of natural history.

The wind beginning to moderate soon after noon, and there being at length some appearance of motion in the ice near Cape Hearne, the boats were immediately recalled from the shore, and returned at two P.M., bringing some peat, which was found to burn tolerably, but a smaller quantity than I had hoped to procure. We then made sail for Cape

Hearne, which we rounded at six o'clock, having no soundings with from seventeen to twenty fath oms of line, at the distance of a mile and a quar. ter from the point.

I was beginning once more to indulge in those flattering hopes, of which often-repeated disappointments cannot altogether deprive us, when I perceived from the crow's-nest a compact body of ice, extending completely in to the shore near the point which formed the western extreme. We ran sufficiently close to be assured that no passage to the westward could at present be effected, the floes being literally upon the beach, and not a drop of clear water being visible beyond them. I then or. dered the ships to be made fast to a floe, being in eighty fathoms' water, at the distance of four or five miles from the beach. The season had now so far advanced as to make it absolutely necessary to secure the ships every night from ten till two o'clock, the weather being too dark during that interval to allow of our keeping under way in such a navigation as this, deprived as we were of the use of compasses.

On the morning of the 8th, there being no pros pect of any immediate alteration in the ice, I directed the boats to be sent on shore from both ships, to endeavour to procure some game, as well as to examine the productions of this part of the island. On going to the masthead, shortly after the boats had been despatched, I found that the bight of ice in which the ships were lying was not one floe, but formed by the close junction of two, so that our situation was by no means so secure as I had supposed for this bight was so far from being a