338

PASS

CHAP. XXV.

CAPE LIVERPOOL.— OFF POSSESSION BAY.- LAND

THERE. CALM.— FALL IN WITH THE NORTH STAR.” -GETTING STORES FROM THE HOLD. FRESH BREEZE AND A FOG.

AFTER examining the western arm of the inlet, we stretched across towards Cape Charles Yorke, and as we passed Elwin Bay the breeze began to freshen up to a half gale, which carried us on with great rapidity. A mist gradually settled down upon the hills, hiding their snowy peaks from our sight; but the land about Cape Yorke, which here becomes much lower than any other part of the coast in this neigbourhood, was clearly visible. Several large and small bergs were observed in the inlet, many of them aground, but not a particle of field ice could be seen there.

During the night it blew hard again, so much so as to cause the mate some alarm lest the "Prince Albert" should run up against a berg or floe. But he need not have alarmed himself, as there certainly was very small danger of that, with the excessive care always taken about it by him to the contrary.

Thursday 29th. However, about two A.M. in his watch, he reported to the Commander that the gale was increasing and blowing very hard; and, consequently, he received orders to take in sail; which he did most rigorously, by reducing the whole canvass on the ship's mast to about as much as would, with the same wind, have lessened her speed one half. As if thanking him for his pains, and in mockery for the unnecessary trouble he had given, and the loss of so many miles in distance which the fair wind would have placed on our log, he had no sooner accomplished his task than it fell almost calm! Perhaps this, however, which has often been satirically called the "Irishman's hurricane," was the increased gale he saw, and which no one on the deck saw or felt with him. But there it was; and the issue of it proved that we had most unnecessarily lost a good three hours' run, making somewhere about twenty-four miles. Thus the over caution which was ever in operation upon us, again, as it had frequently done before, caused our being unnecessarily retarded in our progress.

When I came on deck in the morning I found that the second mate had been undoing all that the first mate had done, and that his whole watch had been employed in making that sail which was taken in in the preceding four hours. The wind was so light

that a cambric handkerchief might have been set as a skysail and received no rent in it. Occasionally, about nine o'clock as we came under the lofty Byam Martin mountains, the wind would rush down the valleys and ravines in squalls, but with not sufficient violence to produce any decrease of the sail set at eight A. M. At noon we were off Cape Liverpool again, and I could not but view it with mingled feelings of vexation and regret. A short ten days only had passed since we were there on our way to the destination marked out for us. I was then looking at it with prying eyes and anxious hope; full of life and animation at the idea that we had actually entered upon the field of those labours in which I had embarked, and in which I felt such delight. Now we were on our way back: but, let me stop: it is enough to say that I was miserably depressed, so much so as to feel quite ill in consequence. But there we were: Cape Liverpool and its singular coloured water exactly as it was on the morning of the 19th; only the ship's head at that time and the present was in opposite directions.

In the afternoon the wind became foul and we made but little progress. The day, however, was exceedingly fine and beautiful, and perfectly warm. Several icebergs were in sight around us and afar off; and numerous flocks of birds, with large parties

of the eider duck on the wing and upon the water, diversified the scene. Now and then a seal would pop up his head to inhale some fresh air, and the mollemokes, as usual, flocked round us in their usual numbers. We slowly stood by Cape Fanshawe, and then opened out Possession Bay, from which we were distant at eight P. M. about seven miles. It was then calm, and as there was no prospect of going ashore there this evening I turned in at ten o'clock, desiring one of the mates to call me, if Captain Forsyth meant to examine this place at three A. M.

The

Friday 30th. Accordingly, at that hour, I was informed that the boat was ordered, and the Commander ready to go on shore. No objection being made to my also going, I was soon ready. morning was exceedingly calm and the water very smooth, so that it seemed more like pulling across a pleasure lake than upon a sea within the Arctic circle. The air, however, felt unusually cold; and, altogether, it was a very different affair to any previous landing I had made by myself. Hardly a syllable was uttered during the whole hour or more that passed before we got to the beach; and a sort of gloom rested upon all of those who heretofore at any examination were always full of life and spirits. Possession Bay, if indeed the mere roadstead, it seemed to me, can be rightly called a bay, is well

described in Parry's first voyage, and need not, therefore, occupy any space here.

We found a great deal of surf on the beach, and it required much caution to prevent the boat being sunk under the heavy rollers that came in. The moment her bow touched the ground, we jumped out up to our knees in water, to drag her up high and dry. As I had no official duty, this time, to perform, I merely sauntered along, examining the place for my own pleasure, and looking for those marks which I was ever most anxious to find, whether on duty or not. Two hands were left in charge of the boat, and to get up a fire for boiling some water for our breakfast; and the rest, with crowbar and shovel, followed us along the beach. At a short distance off, on a rise of the ground, a cairn was discovered. Thither we proceeded, following some footsteps that were plainly to be seen on the hard ground, and denoting that some one with boots or shoes had not long before us been there. The nature of the ground and soil, I observed, was far superior to any I had yet seen. Indeed, it was quite a change; and signs of vegetation, however scanty in comparison to more southern parts, were abundant. Some feeble roots of young trees I found, and several samples of wild flowers; and, as we walked on, a flowing rivulet met us descending from