ast. The sandy hummocks are bound
together by the creeping fibrous roots of a species of grass, named
_Elymus mollis_; and many of them are covered by a coat of black
vegetable mould. Ruins of Esquimaux houses, that appeared to have been
deserted for many years, were scattered along the borders of the cove,
and much drift-timber lay on the low grounds. We saw some ducks and
geese, and two of the crew went to hunt round the harbour for deer, but
they had no success.

The wind having moderated in the evening, we prepared to resume the
voyage, and had begun to load the boats, when I thought I saw a
_kaiyack_ paddle across the mouth of the cove. It was followed by many
others, that were in succession lost behind the point, with the
exception of one which seemed to return and look into the inlet. I
concluded that the natives were in search of us; and, as it was
desirable to have all the cargo on board when they arrived, the utmost
despatch was used in loading the boats. Before this operation was
completed, Mr. Kendall, on attentively examining one of the objects with
his telescope, suggested that it was not a kaiyack; and accompanying me
to a sandy eminence nearer the entrance of the cove, we ascertained that
the whole was an optical deception, caused by the haze of an easterly
wind magnifying the stumps of drift wood, over which the surf was
rolling. The imagination, no doubt, assisted in completing the
resemblance, but the deception, for a few minutes, was perfect.

We quitted Refuge Cove at nine o'clock in the evening, and rounding
Shoal Islet, steered to the northward along the coast. The circuit of
Shoal Islet was made because there was too little water to float our
boats over the bar, which we had crossed the preceding evening. The
temperature of the air on leaving the cove, was 36 degrees, but it fell
at midnight to 32 degrees; and the night proved fine. When resting on
our oars, the boats were drifted to the westward, by a current which we
ascertained, by subsequent observations, to be the flood tide.

[Sidenote: Sunday, 9th.] After pulling along the coast for some time,
the ice-blink appeared in the horizon, and about one o'clock in the
morning on the 9th, we could perceive a stream of ice lying at the
distance of eight or nine miles from the shore, and inclosing several
small icebergs. At four o'clock, a northerly breeze springing up,
brought a quantity of loose ice down upon us, and we made for the shore.
This