At one A.M. on the 2d, a star was seen, being the first that had
been visible to us for more than two months.
As we were making no way to the westward, I left the ship,
accompanied by a large party of officers and men, and was soon
after joined by the Griper's boats. The basis of this land is
sandstone; but we met with limestone also, occurring in loose
pieces on the surface, and several lumps of coal were brought in
by the parties who had traversed the island in different
directions. Our sportsmen were by no means successful, having seen
only two deer, which were too wild to allow them to get near them.
The dung of these animals, however, as well as that of the
musk-ox, was very abundant, especially in those places where the
moss was most luxuriant; every here and there we came to a spot of
this kind, consisting of one or two acres of ground, covered with
a rich vegetation, which was evidently the feeding-place of those
animals, there being quantities of their hair and wool lying
scattered about. Several heads of the musk-ox were picked up, and
one of the Hecla's seamen brought to the boat a narwhal's horn,
which he found on a hill more than a mile from the sea, and which
must have been carried thither by Esquimaux or by bears: three or
four brace of ptarmigan were killed, and these were the only
supply of this kind which we obtained.
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