A lane of water leading
towards the land at no great distance from us, I hauled a boat over the
ice and then rowed on shore, accompanied by Lieutenant Foster and some
of the other officers, taking with me another small store of provisions,
to be deposited here, as a future resource for my party, should we
approach this part of the coast.
Landing at half past six P.M., and leaving Mr. Bird to bury the
provisions, Lieutenant Foster and myself walked without delay to the
eastward, and, on ascending the point, found that there was, as we had
supposed, an indentation in the coast on the other side. We now began to
conceive the most flattering hopes of discovering something like a
harbour for the ship, and pushed on with all possible haste to examine
the place farther; but, after three hours walking, were much mortified,
on arriving at its head, to find that it was nothing but an open bay,
entirely exposed to the inroads of all the northern ice, and therefore
quite unfit for the ship. We returned to the boat greatly disappointed,
and reached the Hecla at 1.30 A.M. on the 7th.
I do not remember to have ever experienced in these regions such a
continuance of beautiful weather as we now had, during more than three
weeks that we had been on the northern coast of Spitzbergen.
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