irst with the
appearance of several parallel trenches, a foot deep, running for a
great distance amongst the fragments, but on examination they were
ascertained to originate in fissures of the subjacent strata. Much
quartz being intermixed with the limestone of Cape Bexley, the fragments
which covered the ground had, by the action of the weather, lost most of
the softer calcareous matter, and were converted into a kind of rasp,
very annoying to pedestrians, being capable of destroying a pair of
stout English shoes in a walk of a few hours.

At eleven o'clock we came to a pack of ice abutting against the shore,
but while we halted to cook breakfast, the wind opened a way for us. In
the course of the morning we passed many heavy streams of ice, separated
by lanes of open water, which would have afforded an easy passage for a
ship. Having obtained a meridian observation for latitude, we
re-embarked, and pulled for five miles through an open channel, to Point
Cockburn, on the opposite side of a bay, which appeared to be four or
five miles deep, and to be quite filled with drift-ice. Many deer were
seen grazing near this point, but we did not stop to send a hunter in
pursuit of them. We afterwards crossed several other indentations of the
coast, skirted by reefs of limestone and low islets, and encamped on
Chantry Island, lying close to the main shore, in latitude 68 degrees 45
minutes N., longitude 114 degrees 23 minutes W., having sailed
thirty-nine miles in the course of the day. Two islands, lying opposite
to our encampment, received the appellations of Manners Sutton and Sir
Robert Liston's Islands. The degree of motion in the ice, which was
drifting between these islands and the shore, indicated a stronger
current of both flood and ebb than we had hitherto seen.

[Sidenote: Sunday, 6th.] On the 6th, we commenced the day's voyage at
three in the morning, but were compelled to put ashore soon afterwards
by a stream of ice barring our way. At six o'clock, however, the flowing
tide opened it sufficiently to enable us to push the boats along with
poles, our progress being occasionally facilitated by the rocky reefs,
which kept the heavier masses from pressing down upon us. Much of the
ice lay aground, in nine fathoms, but none of it rose more than five or
six feet above the surface of the water. We estimated the velocity of
the flood tide, off some of the rocky points, at three miles an hour,
and at such places we had much