During the night of the 15th we passed the western entrance of Fisher strait, and turned northward, up the west coast of Southampton. Frequent soundings, taken as the ship passed over, or very close to, the position of Tom island on the chart, gave no indications of it.
This island was placed on the chart, on the authority of Captain Lyon, but nobody has since seen it.
Fullerton Harbour.
The 16th was thick and foggy, so that when the distance to Cape Fullerton had been run down in the evening, and the water had shoaled to twenty-five fathoms, the ship lay-to for the night. In the morning, standing to the westward, breakers were seen at nine o’clock; shortly after, several low islands were passed, and at noon the launch was sent ahead to sound the way into a long bay, which subsequently proved to be Winchester inlet. A good harbour, sheltered by islands, was found on the east side of the bay, and about three miles from its mouth, where the anchor was dropped at six o’clock in the evening.
The country surrounding Winchester inlet is very similar to that bounding the whole of the northwestern part of Hudson bay. The country is underlain by Archæan crystalline rocks, and has all the physical characteristics common to similar areas in the south. Long, gently rounded hills, of slight elevation, form the higher grounds, with wide, shallow valleys between them. The whole has been intensely glaciated, and the abrasion of the great ice-cap has reduced the general surface to as near a level surface as is possible, considering the varying resisting properties of the different rocks found here.
There is no soil upon the rocky hills, while that of the valleys is largely boulder clay, in which the coarser material predominates, leaving little room for the growth of Arctic vegetation upon the finer materials of the soil. Boulders scattered in profusion over the rocky hills give to the latter a peculiar ragged appearance. Lakes and ponds dot the valleys, and much of the land surrounding these is low and swampy.
The shores of the bay are low, and are masked, in most places, by a wide fringe of low rocky islands, while beyond the islands the danger zone is continued several miles seaward by a labyrinth of sunken reefs. The bottom of the bay, beyond these reefs, continues very uneven, so that in the portion between Winchester and Chesterfield inlets there is danger of a ship grounding, when beyond the sight of the low shores. The proximity to the magnetic pole accounts for the sluggishness of the compass in these waters, where no reliance can be placed on it. This, with the uncharted, low coast, bare of prominent landmarks, renders the approach to any of the harbours uncertain and dangerous.
Inland from the shores the country rises slowly; indeed, the general elevation does not increase towards the interior above ten feet a mile, while along the shores there are no hills more than fifty feet high.
Our instructions were to find, and, if possible, to pass the winter in company with the American whaling ship known to be in Hudson bay. The whalers formerly wintered at Marble island, or at Depot island; the former is to the southward of the mouth of Chesterfield inlet, the latter close to the entrance of Winchester inlet. Marble island has long been abandoned, chiefly on account of its insufficient water supply. Within the last few years a more convenient harbour was found close to Cape Fullerton, and the large launch was fitted out to search for it, the Era not being in the harbour at Depot island.