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34 Letters written during the late Voyage of Discovery island was at least 10 leagues wide, and the water, though not free from ice, seemed perfectly navigable. Our ships’ companies were in the best health and spirits, and the ships themselves in excellent condition; our provisions were abundant; we had therefore, every reason to look forward to the happy prosecution of the expedition. The rocks along the shore continued still to display a succession of horizontal strata in the lower parts, but those at the top seemed to dip a little to the westward. The general substance was lime stone ; but in those parts which were cleared of rubbish by the sea, some beds of beautiful marble, besides loose fragments, were displayed. The ebb-tide here came from the westward, to which direction the flood must have set. This circumstance was rather discouraging for us, ; s it seemed to denote that the tides regarded Baffin’s Bay on the east, and not the great northern American Sea, to which we were bound, on the west. It was however, probable, that the partial settings of the tide, in a sea incumbered by numerous islands, might be more governed by their positions with respect to one another, than by the situation of the great ocean by which they were all inclosed. In the even ing of the 22d we had a sight of two icebergs, objects to which we bad for some time been strangers. From the entrance of Lancaster’s Sound on to the meridian of 92° the beginning of Wellington channel, the winds had always blown in the direction of the sound, i.e. E. or W. but.on the 23rd, a steady breeze came away from the northward, or across the strait. This strengthened the general idea that the N. shore was composed wholly of islands loosely dispersed and at considerable intervals : the probability, therefore, was, that by holding on west- wardly for some time longer, we might arrive in the open ocean. But a fog coming on in the morning of the 24th, our progress was greatly retarded, especially as the bad sailing of the Griper did not permit so much sail to be set as would have been requi site. In our course we came near a vast field of ice, about 10 miles long, on a general thickness of eight feet. In this day’s run we passed two islands of some extent towards the N. shore ; part of the S. shore was also visible about long. 98°. On the 24th, the wind drawing westwardly, and the ice accumulating toward the S. shore of the strait, we worked up to windward, and came within sight of a long tract of coast on the N. The appearance of the islands and the coast is quite different from that of the lands in the eastern parts of the straits ; for the sur face of the former is generally low, smooth, and seemingly sandy. The depth of water agrees also with what is usually remarked on low coasts, for it was, in some places, only 31 fathoms, and the deepest did not reach to 80 fathoms.