our position, and as this was important, I took a rough guess before it was too late. The fog came on; the "North Star" was last seen on the larboard tack stretching in towards the land, and upon our weather quarter at some little distance off. At this moment Captain Forsyth came on deck, and instantly, with much vexation that the mate had not done it before, gave orders to put the ship about after the "North Star." But we did not see her again during the day. The hatches were battened down and all made snug by the afternoon, when it began to blow rather fresh.

VALLEY.- ESQUIMAUX HUTS. - POND'S BAY.-NIGHT

VERY DARK AND GLOOMY.

TIME. PROCEED IN THE BOAT TO EXAMINE FOUR PROMINENT POINTS OF LAND. MIDNIGHT AGAIN. ROCKETS AND BLUE LIGHTS. ESQUIMAUX ENCAMPMENT.— NO OTHER TRACES FOUND.

ERECT A CAIRN AND LEAVE A NOTICE. TO THE SHIP.

THE information which we gathered respecting the "North Star," I will merely glance at. After leaving Port Leopold, where she had had great difficulty in getting the boat off which she had sent on shore there, having to employ three more boats to get her through the ice, she went towards Port Bowen, which was found to be entirely blocked with ice. From Port Bowen she stretched across out of the inlet, and spoke Captain Penny, and afterwards Sir John Ross. From these parties they had learned all the great news which made this year memorable as regarded the Arctic seas. They next proceeded to Navy Board Inlet, and there, on

the main land, behind Wollaston Island, they landed their extra provisions and fuel. A gale coming on obliged them to loose an anchor and cable, and finally they ran out, mid channel, through Lancaster Sound, where we first saw them. During their winter sojourn they had lost four men from causes not, attributable to the climate, and a native who had gone on board with his feet frost-bitten also died. They had been put on two-thirds allowance of provisions, and had found a great deal of the preserved meats furnished them from England very indifferent.

The result of this news was in many respects gratifying as regarded our little vessel. There never was perhaps a clearer proof of the great advantage that a small vessel like ours has, when on such a service as that in which the "North Star" was employed, minus the carrying provisions. The morning was very thick and foggy, with a light foul wind. Captain Forsyth was still very anxious about our position, and I told him where I had put it down when the breeze came on; and that, calculating the courses and distances we had run since then, I concluded we were close in with Cape Graham Moore at about ten o'clock. The weather still continued such that it was impossible to see any distance, and the light air which blew, or, rather, that current of air which the fog propelled towards us, gave us very little help. Sud

CLOSE IN WITH THE LAND.

351

denly we perceived, through the heavy darkness around, a still darker object loom out grimly. It was a high and almost perpendicular rock, soon showing itself to be a prominent headland. This I felt was either the cape, or close to it; but no one well could say so positively, on account of the manner in which it only half exposed itself to us. It was so close that we could hear the dash of the sea upon its base, and we fancied the vessel was being set in upon it; accordingly, the boats were ordered out to tow. At this work nearly the whole of the day was passed. Occasionally a faint air would help us on for half a mile, but it would then die away and leave us quite becalmed, and with nothing to look at but the dense atmosphere around. Once or twice it cleared enough for us to see our way, and to make out two or three angular capes or high rocky points on our bow. These, we thought, were the mere projections of indentations in the coast between Cape Graham Moore and the cape inside the entrance of Pond's Bay. One of the clearer intervals suddenly opened out to us a low oval-like valley, presenting every appearance of great verdure and fertility. Upon it I fancied I could make out some Esquimaux huts, but no signs of animal life were visible. The sudden manner in which the curtain was drawn aside from this valley gave to it a far superior aspect to what perhaps it really

merited; but I could not help for the moment assimilating it, however great the difference might really be, to the far-famed Val d'Ossola first seen from the Simplon Pass in Italy. This arctic vale certainly gave as bright and pleasing relief at that moment, and among those wild and rugged scenes, as the other could in its own neighbourhood.

It was eight in the evening when a fresh breeze again sprang up, and this time from the north-east. At the same moment it cleared away in that quarter of the horizon, and, for a short time, also ahead. We then saw the "North Star" far away to seaward, having, apparently, stood well out during the preceding night, and being kept there by the day's calm. Trimming our sails to the breeze, we gently glided through several icebergs along the lofty iron-bound rocks on our starboard hand as we stood in to Pond's Bay, looking out for the long low north point on which it was said notices would be placed. It was still thick weather, and was getting dark, so that we could only judge that the bay was unusually clear of ice. It is very rare to find it clear altogether; but, save the bergs which we passed, nothing like ice presented itself. About ten o'clock we gradually neared two points of land, which in the dim light, or rather early darkness, presented something like the appearance we were in search of. Accordingly preparations were