Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/477

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reached Whale Sound. A heavy pack, apparently hanging upon the Carey Islands, drove us far up the North Water; and, to get to our destination, we were obliged to hold in close to Hakluyt Island Here, the air having fallen calm, I pulled ashore; and, when we set out to return, we found ourselves enveloped in a fog which caused us some alarm. Observing its approach, we pulled to catch the schooner before the dark curtain closed upon us, but were overtaken when almost a mile away. Having no compass we became totally ignorant of which way to steer; and, although we heard the ship's bell and an occasional discharge of guns to attract our attention, yet, so deceptive is the ear where the eye is not concerned in guiding it, that no two of us caught the sound from the same direction; so we lay on our oars, and trusted to fortune. After a while, a light wind sprung up; and the schooner, getting under way, by the merest chance bore right upon us, and came so suddenly in view out of the dark vapors that we had like to have been run down before we could get headway on the boat.

We had much difficulty, owing to the fogs, current, and icebergs, in getting up Whale Sound; but, after much patient perseverance, we arrived at length in Barden Bay, and came to anchor off the native settlement of Netlik.

The settlement was found to be deserted. The fog lifting next day, disclosing much heavy ice, among which it would be dangerous to trust the schooner, I took a whale-boat and pulled up the Sound.

The Sound narrows steadily until a few miles beyond Barden Bay, where the coasts run parallel until the waters terminate in a deep bay or gulf, to which