to gain every possible
information as to the length of the strait, and the extent of the fixed
ice now more immediately before us.

With this view, I requested Captain Lyon to take with him Mr. Griffiths
and four men, and proceed overland in a S.b.E. direction, till he should
determine, by the difference of latitude, which amounted only to sixteen
miles, whether there was or was not a strait leading to the westward,
about the parallel of 69 deg. 26', being nearly that in which the place
called by the Esquimaux _Kh=emig_ had been found by observation to
lie. In the mean time, Lieutenant Palmer was directed to proceed in a
boat to Igloolik, or Neerlo-Nackto, as might be necessary, to ascertain
whether the passage leading towards Kh=emig was yet clear of ice; and,
should he find any one of the Esquimaux willing to accompany him to the
ships with his canoe, to bring him on board as a pilot. The third party
consisted of Mr. Bushnan, with three men, under the command of
Lieutenant Reid, who was instructed to proceed along the continental
coast to the westward, to gain as much information as possible
respecting the termination of our present strait, the time of his return
to the ships being limited to four days, at the expiration of which the
other two parties might also be expected to reach us.

On the morning of the 29th, the wind being light from the eastward, but
the weather much more clear than before, we weighed and stood over to
the mainland with the intention of putting our travellers on shore, but
found that coast now so lined with the ice which had lately broken
adrift that it was not possible for a boat to approach it. Standing off
to the westward, to see what service the late disruption had done us, we
found that a considerable floe had separated, exactly in a line between
the island off which we lay and a second to the westward of it,
subsequently named in honour of LORD AMHERST. Tacking at the
newly-formed margin of the fixed ice, we observed, not only that it was
still firmly attached to the shores, but that it was now almost entirely
"hummocky," and heavier than any we had seen since making Igloolik; some
of the hummocks, as we afterward found, measuring from eight to ten feet
above the surface of the sea.

The different character now assumed by the ice, while it certainly
damped our hopes of the passage being cleared this season by the gradual
effects of dissolution, confirmed, however, in a very satisfacto