art of
Baffin's, or of Hudson's Bay. And whatever passage there may be, it
must be, or, at least, part of it, must lie to the north of latitude
72 deg..[11] Who could expect to find a passage or strait of such extent?

[Footnote 10: Captain Cook seems to take his ideas of these from Mr
Staehlin's map, prefixed to the account of the Northern Archipelago,
published by Dr Maty. London, 1774.--D.]

[Footnote 11: On what evidence Captain Cook formed his judgment as to
this, is mentioned in the Introduction.--D.]

Having thus taken my resolution, next morning at three o'clock, we
weighed, and with a gentle breeze at north, proceeded to the southward
down the inlet, and met with the same broken ground, as on the
preceding day. However, we soon extricated ourselves from it, and
afterward never struck ground with a line of forty fathoms. Another
passage into this inlet was now discovered to the S.W. of that by
which we came in, which enabled us to shorten our way out to sea. It
is separated from the other by an island, extending eighteen leagues
in the direction of N.E. and S.W.; to which I gave the name of
_Montagu Island_.

In this S.W. channel are several islands. Those that lie in the
entrance, next the open sea, are high and rocky. But those within are
low ones; and being entirely free from snow, and covered with wood and
verdure, on this account they were called _Green Islands_.

At two in the afternoon, the wind veered to the S.W., and S.W. by S.,
which reduced us to the necessity of plying. I first stretched over
to within two miles of the eastern, shore, and tacked in fifty-three
fathoms water. In standing back to Montagu Island, we discovered a
ledge of rocks, some above, and others under water, lying three miles
to the north of the northern point of Green Islands. Afterward, some
others were seen in the middle of the channel farther out than the
islands. These rocks made unsafe plying in the night (though not very
dark); and, for that reason, we spent it standing off and on, under
Montagu Island; for the depth of water was too great to come to an
anchor.

At day-break, the next morning, the wind came more favourable, and we
steered for the channel between Montagu Island and the Green Islands,
which is between two and three leagues broad, and from thirty-four to
seventeen fathoms deep. We had but little wind all the day, and, at
eight o'clock in the evening, it was a dead calm, when we anchored in
twenty-one fa