appearance of the Coxe Islands, which were too remarkable to be
mistaken, all concurred in assuring us; and it only, therefore, remained
for us to determine whether it would furnish a passage for the ships.
Having made all the remarks which the lateness of the evening would
permit, we descended to the tent at dusk, being directed by a cheerful,
blazing fire of the _andromeda tetragona_, which, in its present dry
state, served as excellent fuel for warming our provisions.

Setting forward at five A.M. on the 5th, along some pleasant valleys
covered with grass and other vegetation, and the resort of numerous
reindeer, we walked six or seven miles in a direction parallel to that
of the creek; when, finding the latter considerably narrowed, and the
numerous low points of its south shore rendering the water too shoal, to
all appearance, even for the navigation of a sloop of ten tons, I
determined to waste no more time in the farther examination of so
insignificant a place. The farther we went to the westward, the higher
the hills became; and the commanding prospect thus afforded enabled us
distinctly to perceive with a glass that, though the ice had become
entirely dissolved in the creek, and for half a mile below it, the whole
sea to the eastward, even as far as Igloolik, was covered with one
continuous and unbroken floe.

Having now completely satisfied myself, that, as respected both ice and
land, there was no navigable passage for ships about this latitude, no
time was lost in setting out on our return.

At half past eight we arrived on board, where I was happy to find that
all our parties had returned without accident, except that Lieutenant
Palmer had been wounded in his hand and temporarily blinded by a gun
accidentally going off, from which, however, he fortunately suffered no
eventual injury.

The result of our late endeavours, necessarily cramped as they had been,
was to confirm, in the most satisfactory manner, the conviction that we
were now in the only passage leading to the westward that existed in
this neighbourhood. Notwithstanding, therefore, the present unpromising
appearance of the ice, I had no alternative left me but patiently to
await its disruption, and instantly to avail myself of any alteration
that nature might yet effect in our favour.

CHAPTER XII.

A Journey performed along the South Shore of Cockburn
Island.--Confirmation of an Outlet to the Polar Sea.--Partial