was, however, nothing in its
favour. After passing the point above mentioned, we met with a good
deal of foul ground, and many sunken rocks, even out in the middle of
the channel, which is here five or six leagues wide. At this time the
wind failed us, and was succeeded by calms and light airs from every
direction; so that we had some trouble to extricate ourselves from the
threatening danger. At length, about one o'clock, with the assistance
of our boats, we got to an anchor, under the eastern shore, in
thirteen fathoms water, and about four leagues to the north of our
last station. In the morning, the weather had been very hazy; but it
afterward cleared up, so as to give us a distinct view of all the land
round us, particularly to the northward, where it seemed to close.
This left us but little hopes of finding a passage that way, or,
indeed, in any other direction, without putting out again to sea.

To enable me to form a better judgment, I dispatched Mr Gore, with
two armed boats, to examine the northern arm; and the master, with two
other boats, to examine another arm that seemed to take an easterly
direction. Late in the evening they both returned. The master
reported, that the arm he had been sent to, communicated with that
from which we had last come; and that one side of it was only formed
by a group of islands. Mr Gore informed me, that he had seen the
entrance of an arm, which, he was of opinion, extended a long way to
the N.E.; and that, probably by it, a passage might be found. On the
other hand, Mr Roberts, one of the mates, whom I had sent with Mr Gore
to sketch out the parts they had examined, was of opinion, that they
saw the head of this arm. The disagreement of these two opinions,
and the circumstance already mentioned of the flood-tide entering the
Sound from the south, rendered the existence of a passage this way
very doubtful. And, as the wind in the morning had become favourable
for getting out to sea, I resolved to spend no more time in searching
for a passage in a place that promised so little success. Besides
this, I considered, that, if the land on the west should prove to be
islands, agreeably to the late Russian Discoveries,[10] we could
not fail of getting far enough to the north, and that in good time,
provided we did not lose the season in searching places, where a
passage was not only doubtful, but improbable. We were now upward
of five hundred and twenty leagues to the westward of any p