beat to the northward, which we found great difficulty in doing,
owing to the quantity of loose ice with which this part of the
inlet was now covered. A remarkably thick fog obscured the eastern
land from our view this evening at the distance of five or six
miles, while the western coast was distinctly visible at four
times that distance.

The weather was beautifully calm and clear on the 13th, when,
being near an opening in the eastern shore, I took the opportunity
of examining it in a boat. It proved to be a bay, a mile wide at
its entrance, and three miles deep in an E.b.S. direction, having
a small but snug cove on the north side, formed by an island,
between which and the main land is a bar of rocks, which
completely shelters the cove from sea or drift ice. We found the
water so deep, that in rowing close along the shore we could
seldom get bottom with seven fathoms of line. The cliffs on the
south side of this bay, to which I gave the name of PORT BOWEN,
resemble, in many places, ruined towers and battlements; and
fragments of the rocks were constantly falling from above. At the
head of the bay is an extensive piece of low flat ground,
intersected by numerous rivulets, which, uniting at a short
distance from the beach, formed a deep and rapid stream, near the
mouth of which we landed. This spot was, I think, the most barren
I ever saw, the ground being almost entirely covered with small
pieces of slaty limestone, among which no vegetation appeared for
more than a mile, to which distance Mr. Ross and myself walked
inland, following the banks of the stream. Among the fragments we
picked up one piece of limestone, on which was the impression of a
fossil-shell. We saw here a great number of young black
guillemots, and a flock of ducks, which we supposed to be of the