CH AP. covered with moss and long grass, which produced all the plants we had
met with to the southward, and two or three besides. Cape Beaufort
August, is composed of sandstone, enclosing bits of petrified wood and rushes,
and is traversed by narrow veins of coal lying in an E. N. E. and W. S. W,
direction. That at the surfiice was dry and bad, but some pieces which
had been thrown up by the burrowing of a small animal, probably the
ermine, burned very well.
As this is a part of the coast hitherto unexplored, I may stand
excused for being a little more particular in my description. Cape
Beaufort is situated in the depth of a great bay, formed between Cape
Lisburn and Icy Cape, and is the last point where the hills come close
down to the sea, by reason of the coast line curving to the northward,
W’hile the range of hills continues its former direction. Lrom the
rugged mountains of limestone and flint at Cape Lisburn, there is
an uniform descent to the rounded hills of sandstone at Cape Beaufort
just described. The range is, however, broken by extensive valleys,
intersected by lakes and rivers. Some of these lakes border upon the
sea, and in the summer months are accessible to baidars, or even large
boats; but as soon as the current from the beds of thawing snow
inland ceases, the sea throws up a bar across the mouths of them, and
they cannot be entered. The beach, at the places where we landed
was shingle and mud, the country mossy and swampy, and infested
with moskitos. We noticed recent tracks of v/olves, and of some
cloven-footed animals, and saw several ptarmigans, ortolans, and a lark.
Very little drift wood had found its way upon this part of the coast.
We reached the ship just after a thick fog came in from seaward, and
only a short time before the increasing breeze obliged her to quit the
coast. During my absence the boats had been sent to examine a large
floating mass which e.xcited a good deal of curiosity at the time, and
found it to be the carcass of a dead whale. It had an Esquimaux harpoon
in it, and a drag attached, made of an inflated seal-skin, whicli
had no doubt worried the animal to death. Thus, with knowledge
just proportioned to their wants, do these untutored barbarians, with
their slender boats and limited means, contrive to take the largest animal
of the creation. In the present instance, certainly, their victim
h a d e l u d e d t h e i r e f f o r t s , b u t t h e c a r c a s s w a s n o t y e t “ t o o h i g h f o r C H A I .
a n E s q u i m a u x p a l a t e , a n d w o u l d , n o d o u b t , e r e l o n g , b e e i t h e r w a s h e d
u p o n t h e s h o r e , o r d i s c o v e r e d b y s o m e o f t h e m a n y w a n d e r i n g b a i d a r s « g v .
ig t h e c o a s t . „
Some very extensive flocks of eider ducks had also been seen from
the ship They consisted entirely of females and young ones, the
greater part of which could not fly, but they nevertheless contrived to
evade pursuit by diving. .
On the morning of the 10th we were under treble-reefed topsmls
and foresail, with a short head sea, in which we pitched away the jib
boom We had a thick fog, with the wind at N . N . E. A httle after
noon, being in lat. 70° 09' N ., and 165° 10' W„ we had twenty-four
fathoms hard bottom; we then stood toward the shore and again
changed the bottom to mud, the depth of water gradually decreasing.
On the 11th it was calm; by the observations at noon there had
been a current to the S. W., but this had now ceased, as upon tm l it
ran west one-third of a mile per hour, and three hours afterward N. E.
five-eighths per hour, which appeared to be the regular tide In th
evening the wind again blew from the northward, and brought a thick
foil with it. W estoodoffandon, guided by the soundings.
" In the morning of the 12th we saw a great many birds, wahusses,
and small white whales; from which I concluded that we were near a
stream of ice, but only one piece was seen in the evening aground. We
tacked not fill- from it in ten fathoms. As we stood in shore, the temperature
of the sea always decreased; t h e e f f e c t , probably, of the rivers
ofmelting snow mingling with it. .
As it was impossible to determine the continuity of coast, with
the weather so thick, farther than by the gradual decrease of he
soundings, I stood to the northward to ascertain the position of the
ice, the wind having changed to E. N. E. and become
the purpose. At eight o'clock in the monii.ig o the 15 th the f g
cleared off, and exhibited the main body of ice extending from N l 9 •
to S. 29 W. (true). At nine we tacked amongst the brmh,
three iathoms water, in lat. 71° 08' N ., long. 163° 40' W. -The wind
was blowing along the ice, and the outer part of the pack was in
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