After the most anxious consideration, I came to the resolution of attempting the direct passage of the Frozen Strait; though, I confess, not without some apprehension of the risk I was incurring, and of the serious loss of time which, in case of failure either from the non-existence of the strait or from the insuperable obstacles which its name implies, would thus be inevitably occasioned to the expedition.

The accounts given by Captain Middleton of the latitude of the western entrance of the Frozen Strait are so confused, and even contradictory, that the present appearance of the land perplexed me extremely in deciding whether or not we had arrived at the opposite end of the opening to which he had given that name.  That immediately before us to the westward, though it agreed in latitude within five or six miles with the southernmost parallel he has assigned to it, appeared much too narrow to answer his description of the passage we were in search of.  Upon the whole, however, I thought it most probable that this was the strait in question; and as, at all events, the opening between Southampton Island and the land to the northward of it, in whatever latitude it might be found, and whether wide or narrow, was the passage through which it was our present object to penetrate into Repulse Bay, I decided on using our utmost exertions to push through the narrow strait now before us.

On the morning of the 13th we observed something very like smoke rising from about Cape Welsford, which, being confined to one spot, was thought likely to be occasioned by the fires of natives.  Nothing could exceed the fineness of the weather about this time; the climate was, indeed, altogether so different from that to which we had before been accustomed in the icy seas, as to be a matter of constant remark.  The days were temperate and clear, and the nights not cold, though a very thin plate of ice was usually formed upon the surface of the sea in sheltered places, and in the pools of water upon the floes.  After sunset we descried land, appearing very distant, through the middle of the strait, which we considered to be that on the American side of the Welcome.  At this time, also, we observed some ice in the centre of the strait heavier than that which covered the rest of the sea, and apparently aground in shoal water, as afterward proved to be the case.

On the 15th we were within a league of a remarkable headland on Southampton Island, which I named CAPE BYLOT, as being probably the westernmost land seen by that navigator in 1615.  In the mean time, the Hecla, still continuing very closely beset, had, in spite of every exertion, drifted back with the ice several miles to the northward and eastward, so that in the course of the evening we lost sight of her altogether.  This latter circumstance was, however, owing in great measure to the extraordinary refraction upon the horizon, making terrestrial objects at the distance of six or seven miles appear flattened down or depressed, as well as otherwise much deformed.