of them would have destroyed our boat, and I was glad to
cross the Sound without getting within their reach. We returned
by the west side of Jerdan Island, where there are bights which
might afford shelter to a small vessel.
The Sound that separates Wollaston Island from the Bay of
St. Francis, I named after Sir John Franklin, and the harbour
to the east of the point on which we landed, after Lieutenant
Kendall, who was one of Sir John Franklin’s companions in
his last journey to the north-west coast of America.
On the west point of Kendall Harbour, I observed a magnetic
property in the rock, which is of the same character as
that on Saddle Island. Weddel noticed the same at St. Martin’s
Cove ; but I placed the compass in various parts of that
cove, without observing any difference from the correct bearing.
This was, perhaps, owing to the rock being much covered
with soil; for, being of the same character with that of the
places above-mentioned, it should cause a similar effect.
The next day S.W. gales and thick weather set in, and confined
us almost to the ship. Taking advantage of a short interval
of more moderate weather, I ascended the highest peak on
the south side of the cove, immediately over the anchorage,
taking two barometers, one of the Fnglefield construction,
and the other a syphon barometer, on M. Gay Lussac’s plan,
made by Bunten, of Paris. Mr. Harrison accompanied me,
taking charge of one barometer, whilst I carried the other.
My coxswain carried a theodolite. On landing, the barometers
were set up at the edge of the water and read off, and at the
same moment the barometer on board was read off. We then
ascended, but the rise was so precipitously steep as to offer very
great impediments ; and had it not been for a water-course, in
whose bed we climbed for the first part, the ascent, with delicate
instruments, would have heen almost impracticable. We
had ascended but little way, when the unfortunate theodolite
escaped from my coxswain, rolled down the ravine, and was
much damaged. It was an excellent magnetic transit, and for
that purpose was irremediably injured ; but, as a theodolite,
it was yet useful. The first third of the ascent, from the comparative
facility offered by the water-course, was only impeded
by loose stones, which frequently yielded to the foot, and
rolled down the gully, to the great danger of those who followed.
The banks of the ravine were saturated with water, and
covered either with spongy moss, or matted with plants,* which
afforded no assistance; had it not therefore been for straggling
shrubs of arbutus, or veronica, and tufts of rushes, growing
on the steeper parts, we should have had many a fa ll; and
however unimportant we might think bruises and scratches,
a broken barometer would have been a serious accident, and
much care was required to avoid it. We had to leave the
bed of the torrent, when it became full of wood, and then our
difficulty increased much; for in many places we had to scramble
over the thickly-matted and interwoven branches of the stunted
bushes of beech which frequently yielded to our weight, and
entangled our legs so much, that it was no easy matter to extricate
ourselves.
At the heiglit of one thousand feet, vegetation became much
more stunted; we found the plants and shrubs of very diminutive
size, consisting principally of the deciduous-leaved
beech, one plant of which, though not more than two inches
high, occupied a space of four or five feet in diameter, its
spreading brandies insinuating themselves among wild cranberry,
chamitis, donacia, arbutus, and escalonia, so closely
matted togetlier, as to form quite an elastic carpet. For the
last two hundred feet, we walked over the bare rock, on which
no other vegetation was observed than lichens. The summit of
the peak is formed by a loose pile of green-stone rock, in which
the hornblende appears in very varied forms, sometimes in
large crystals, and again so small and disseminated, as to be
scarcely visible; on the summit it is seen, in very long, narrow
{ ? filiform) crystals, and the feldspar predominating, gives it
a white appearance.")*
The only living creatures we saw were a solitary hawk and
• A species of Gunnera (^Dysemore integi'ifolia, Banks and Solander),
and the green-stemmed Cineraria (Cm. leucanthema. Banks and Solander).
t Nos. 283 to 286, in Geol. Soc. Museum.