We found no indication of
this part of the island having been inhabited, unless the
narwhal's horn be considered as such.
The wind continued light and variable till half past eight A.M. on
the 3d, when a breeze from the northward once more enabled us to
make some progress. I was the more anxious to do so from having
perceived that the main ice had, for the last twenty-four hours,
been gradually, though slowly, closing on the shore, thereby
contracting the scarcely navigable channel in which we were
sailing. The land which formed our western extreme was a low
point, five miles to the westward of our place of observation the
preceding day, which I named Point Ross, and the ice had already
approached this point so much that there was considerable doubt
whether any passage could be found between them. We had scarcely
cleared the point when the wind failed us, and the boats were
immediately sent ahead to tow, but a breeze springing up shortly
after from the westward, obliged us to have recourse to another
method of gaining ground, which we had not hitherto practised:
this was by using small anchors and whale-lines as warps, by which
means we made great progress, till, at forty minutes after noon,
we were favoured by a fresh breeze, which soon took us into an
open space of clear water to the northward and westward.
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