btaining an observation for latitude, we embarked, and continued
our course along the coast until we came to the extremity of a cape,
which was formed by an island separated from the main by a shallow
channel. The cliffs of this island were about forty feet high, and the
snow which had accumulated under them in the winter, was not yet
dissolved, but, owing to the infiltration and freezing of water, now
formed an inclined bank of ice, nearly two-thirds of the height of the
cliff. This bank, or iceberg, being undermined by the action of the
waves, maintained its position only by its adhesion to the frozen cliffs
behind it. In some places large masses had broken off and floated away,
whilst in others the currents of melting snow floating from the flat
land above, had covered the ice with a thick coating of earth; so that
at first sight it appeared as if the bank had broken down; the real
structure of the iceberg being perceptible only where rents existed. In
a similar manner the frozen banks, or icebergs, covered with earth,
mentioned by Lieutenant Kotzebue, in his voyage to Behring Straits,
might have been formed. Had the whole mass of frozen snow broken off
from this bank, an iceberg would have been produced thirty feet wide at
its base, and covered on one side to the depth of a foot, or more, with
black earth. The island was composed of sand and slaty clay, into which
the thaw had not penetrated above a foot. The ravines were lined with
fragments of compact white limestone, and a few dwarf-birches and
willows grew on their sides. The sun's rays were very powerful this day,
and the heat was oppressive, even while sitting at rest in the boat; the
temperature of the air at noon being, in the shade, 62 degrees, and that
of the surface water, where the soundings were three fathoms, 55
degrees.

Immediately after rounding the cape, which was named after His
Excellency Sir Peregrine Maitland, Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada,
we entered a channel ten miles wide, running to the eastward, with an
open horizon in that direction; and a doubt arose as to whether it was a
strait, or merely a bay. Many large masses of ice were floating in it,
which proved to us that it had considerable depth; but the water being
only brackish, excited a suspicion that there was no passage through it.
While we were hesitating whether to hazard a loss of time by exploring
the opening, or to cross over at once to the northern land, several deer
were