It being now evident that the inlet into which, in the course of our endeavours to penetrate to the westward, we had unavoidably been led, would afford us no passage in that direction, I gave orders for weighing at the turn of tide, being determined at once to run back through the narrow channel by which we had entered, and to push to the northward without delay, in search of some more favourable opening.

Our uncertainty respecting the true situation of the Frozen Strait, together with the want of observations during the day, left us, at this time, in doubt whether we had already penetrated through that passage, or had still to encounter the difficulties which the former accounts of it had led us to anticipate.

We stood up the bay towards daylight, and at seven A.M.  I left the Fury, accompanied by a large party of officers, having by signal requested Captain Lyon to join us.  We landed upon a point just to the eastward of this bight, in which neighbourhood are several little islands and coves, probably affording good anchorage, but which the more immediate objects we had in view did not permit us to examine.  Upon the point we found the remains of no less than sixty Esquimaux habitations, consisting of stones laid one over the other in very regular circles, eight or nine feet in diameter, besides nearly a hundred other rude, though certainly artificial structures, some of which had been fireplaces, others storehouses, and the rest tolerably-built walls four or five feet high, placed two and two, and generally eight or nine feet apart, which these people use for their canoes, as well as to keep the dogs from gnawing them.  A great many circles of stones were also seen more inland.  About three miles to the N.N.W. of our landing-place, our people reported having seen fifteen others of the same kind, and what they took to be a burying-ground, consisting of nine or ten heaps of large stones, of three feet in diameter, and as many in height.  Under these were found a variety of little implements, such as arrow or spear heads tipped with stone or iron, arrows, small models of canoes and paddles, some rough pieces of bone and wood, and one or two strips of asbestos, which, as Crantz informs us, is used by the natives of Greenland for the wick of their lamps, and for applying hot, in certain diseases, to the afflicted part.[*] Under these articles were found smaller stones, placed as a pavement, six or seven feet in length, which, in the part not concealed by the larger stones, was covered with earth.  Our men had not the curiosity or inclination to dig any deeper, but a human scull was found near the spot.  Our people also reported that, several miles inland of this, they observed stones set up as marks, many of which we also met with in the neighbourhood of the point.  Of these marks, which occur so abundantly in every part of the American coast that we visited, we could not then conjecture the probable use, but we afterward learned that the