1824. amongst the ice, on which many walruses were August. lying, arrived on board at thirty minutes past

four, when I learnt that two others of these animals had been killed. We now stood away south-west for a distant point of high land, which I imagined to be the Cape Pembroke of Sir Thomas Button. The situation of the point on which we landed, differs so much from the position assigned by Baffin to Sea-Horse Point, that I imagine he did not see this low part of the coast, but the mountainous land to the north-east, which answers more nearly to his latitude. The point on which we had landed was called after Mr. Leyson (assistant surgeon); and a broad strait of about thirty miles, which runs between this and Cape Pembroke, received the name of Evans' Inlet,after Mr. Evans, purser of the Griper.

The soundings in which the ship had worked at five miles from the shore, varied from fifty to thirty-five fathoms, muddy bottom. I am thus particular in stating our soundings on this day, as they are the commencement of constant labour at the leads, and also as a proof of the careless manner in which the old charts of the coast of Southampton Island have hitherto been marked; for it is in them laid down as a bold precipitous shore, having from

ninety to a hundred and thirty fathoms off it, 1824. while on almost every part which we coasted, August. our hand-leads were going at from four to ten miles from the beach, which in no one place could be approached within a mile by a ship. At daylight of the 25th we made out tolerably high land at Cape Pembroke, with a long low point running off it south-west. Working in that direction all the day and night, at dawn. of the 26th we passed abreast of the high land, and saw the beach trending south-west, until lost in the distance. Here, it may be proper to observe, the high land entirely ceased, and we entered on a very flat beach of so uniform an appearance, that we were frequently at a loss for a large stone, or some break in the coastline, for the connexion of our angles as we surveyed it. Our compasses had now become quite useless with our head southerly, and that in particular to which the plate was fitted, so powerless, that its north point stood wherever it was placed by the finger; but with our head northerly they all traversed again. This, however, benefitted us but little, for, as our route lay to the south-west, we were without other guidance than celestial bearings, which could not always be obtained. We continued to near the Cape Pembroke shore until one P.M.,

1824. when, favoured by a strong northerly wind and August. the tide, we ran south-west by west by the sun,

along the low land, in from thirty-seven to twenty-five fathoms, when at dark I hauled into fifteen fathoms at four miles from the shore, and anchored for the night. To the south-west of us, the land terminated in a low beach awash with the water, and I did not think it prudent to attempt passing it in the dark, as I must have continued under sail without any object by which I could steer. Several white whales were seen in the course of this day.

Weighing at four A.M. on the 27th, with a very light breeze from the northward, we ran about four miles south-west by south in low but regular soundings; when, the wind failing, we anchored with the stream in twenty fathoms, at four miles from the beach. Sailing along the shore, we had heard loud shouting, and when the day broke, saw seven natives following us by the water's edge. They were now abreast the ship, and as it was desirable to obtain observations, I landed with some of the officers and two boats, but the sky was too cloudy to favour our getting sights for the chronometers.

While yet a mile from the beach, a native