| "The Rocky Mountains either terminated abreast of our present situation, or receded so far to the southward as to be imperceptible from the coast a few miles beyond this reef. Lieutenant Back made a sketch of the most western mountain, which appears in the annexed vignette, and which I had the pleasure of naming in honour of Dr. Copleston, Provost of Oriel College, now Bishop of Landaff. The ice being somewhat loosened by the flood tide, we embarked at one P . M., to force the boats through the narrow channels, and in the course of two hours reached Point Brownlow, where we landed, for the purpose of ascertaining whether the ice could be avoided by passing into the bay that then opened to our view, trending to the south. We perceived that this bay was in every part flat, and strewed with stones; and that the only prospect of getting forward was by entering the ice again, and pushing to an island about two miles further to the west, which we reached after receiving several heavy blows in passing through the loose ice at the entrance of the strait, between the central reef and the island, where the pieces were much tossed by the tide." |
