boat-hooks and spars, to keep her off the rocks. Two or three times
she stuck fast on sunken rocks, but by God's mercy always got off again
without damage. At length we discovered three narrow inlets, the
middlemost forming a bay, being the estuary of a river, which runs
W.S.W. about eight or ten miles up the country, and is called
Nullatartok. Into this we pushed, when shortly after our entrance, the
ice entirely filled up the passage, and we were compelled to retreat to
the uppermost part, choosing the shallowest possible spot to anchor in.
The bay itself is about two miles in breadth, and only in the middle
deep enough to admit the larger fields of drift ice to float into it.
The strand is broad, and slopes off gently. It is covered with large
tables of slate. The mountains on each side are high, and seem to
consist of ferruginous slate, the lamina or plates of which are of such
immense size, that they might serve for entire walls. Towards the sea,
there exudes from these rocks, a yellowish white substance, which has a
strong sulphureous smell. It was so powerful, that if a drop fell on a
piece of tinned iron, it removed the tin in a few minutes.

The vallies in the neighbourhood were green and full of flowers.

Not far from the spot where we had pitched our tents, (which rested upon
a carpet of _potentilla aurea_, in full bloom, bringing to our minds the
European meadows, full of butter-cups), the river, which is of
considerable breadth, falls into the bay. It abounds with fine
salmon-trout. Farther to the westward, two other rivers flow into it,
one of which is much broader than the other, and has a large cataract at
some distance from its mouth. The upper parts of the mountains are
covered partly with moss, and partly with low brush-wood, birch, and
alder, and many berry-bearing shrubs and plants, but no high trees. We
found here both arnica and colts-foot in great plenty. Brother
Kohlmeister gathered and dried a quantity of each, as they are used in
medical cases, and the former cannot be procured from England.

The slate is extremely shivery, and is found in slabs, either lying or
standing upright from four to eight feet square, most easily splitting
into thin plates. Ascending the mountain, they are soon dislodged, by
the tread of a man's foot, and glide down towards the beach with a
rattling, tinkling noise. At low water, we noticed a bed of stone
resembling cast iron, of a reddish hue, and polished by the fr