iers
pour down the valleys, and project, through the ravines, into the
deep-blue waters of this magnificent strait. Northward of us the land
is peculiar, lofty table-land, having here and there a sudden dip, or
thrown up in a semi-peak. The draught of the wind has blown constantly
down the strait. Such are my rough notes made during the day, as the
"Pioneer" and "Intrepid" worked to the westward; but as evening drew
on, the increasing smoothness of the water, and a hard icy blink to the
west, prepared us for a report which came from the crow's nest about
midnight, that there was very much ice to the windward of us.

[Headnote: _STOPPED BY ICE-FIELDS._]

Next day, 17th, after a fog which caused some delay had cleared off,
the disagreeable truth revealed itself: from a little beyond a
conical-shaped island on the north shore, the sound was still barred
with floes, although at this point it increased at least twelve miles
more in breadth. Going up to the floe-edge, the steamers crossed to the
S.W., following the ice carefully along until it impinged upon the
southern shore. The night was beautifully serene and clear; and, as if
to add to our regret, four points and a half of the compass, or 54 deg. of
bearing to the westward, showed no symptom of land. The northern side
of the sound trended away to the west, preserving its lofty and marked
character; whilst on the south the land ended abruptly some fifteen
miles farther on, and then, beyond a small break, one of those
wedge-shaped hills peculiar to the limestone lands of Barrow's Strait
showed itself at a great distance; and the natural suggestion to my own
mind was, that the opening between the said wedge-shaped hill and the
land on our southern hand would have been found to connect itself with
the deep fiords running to the northward from Croker Bay, in Lancaster
Sound; and for an opinion as to the direction of Jones's Sound, whose
frozen surface forbade us to advance with our vessels, I was, from what
I saw, fully willing to believe in the report of my ice quarter-master,
Robert Moore, a clever, observant seaman, as the annexed report will
show:--

"SIR,

"It was in 1848 that I was with Captain Lee in the 'Prince of
Wales,' when we ran up Jones's Sound. The wind was from the S.S.E.
compass (_E.N.E. true_), thick weather, with a strong breeze. We
steered up Jones's Sound, N.E. by compass (_westwardly true_), for
fourteen hours, when, seeing s