liquor seemed
not unlike muddy port-wine; and the sediment appeared, through a
microscope, to be composed of dark-red globules. Some of this sediment
was brought to England, and it is generally supposed to have been a
vegetable substance, the seed, probably, of some species of fungus; or,
perhaps, to have been itself a minute kind of fungus.

On the 18th of August, the ships passed _Cape Dudley Digges_, six miles
northward of which a majestic glacier, or mass of ice, was remarked to
occupy a space of four miles square, extending one mile into the sea,
and rising to the height of at least a hundred feet. On the same day
the vessels passed _Wolstenholme_ and _Whale Sounds_.

About midnight of the 19th, _Sir Thomas Smith's Sound_ was distinctly
seen. Captain Ross considered the bottom of this sound to have been
eighteen leagues distant; but its entrance, he says, was completely
blocked up by ice. On the 21st, the ships stood over to explore an
opening, supposed to have been that called _Alderman Jones's Sound_; but
Captain Ross says that the ice and fog prevented a near approach.

The night of the 24th of August was remarkable for having been the first
on which the sun had been observed to set, since the 7th of June. The
land was now seen to take a southerly direction; and the ships proceeded
along it, as near as they could conveniently approach for the floating
masses of ice.

On the 30th they entered a wide opening in the land, the _Sir James
Lancaster's Sound_ of Baffin. On each side of this opening was a chain
of high mountains. The sea was perfectly free from ice, and the vessels
proceeded on a westward course for several leagues. The weather had, for
some time, been hazy; but, on its clearing up, Captain Ross states that
a range of mountains about twenty-four miles distant, were seen to
occupy the centre of the inlet. To these he gave the name of _Croker
Mountains_, and, imagining that no passage existed through them, he
returned into the open sea, and, not long afterwards, sailed for
England.

Twenty-sixth Day's Instruction.

DAVIS'S STRAIT AND BAFFIN'S BAY CONCLUDED.

The accounts that had been given by Captain Ross, particularly
respecting the apparent mountains, named by him _Croker Mountains_,
across Sir James Lancaster's Sound, not proving either conclusive or
satisfactory, the Lords of the Admiralty ordered two ships, the Hecla
and Griper, to be prepared for a further voyage of discovery in Baf