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184
CAPE ADARE.
[Chap. VII.
1841
advanced, mountainous ranges extending to the right and left of that we first discovered.
At 6 p.m., when we had closed the land seventy miles, we were about two leagues from the shore, which was lined with heavy pack-ice. We steered close along the edge of it towards a small bay, where we hoped to effect a landing, but the wind being on the shore, and a high sea beating heavily along the pack edge, we found it quite impracticable. We therefore stood to the S.E. for the purpose of rounding the eastern extreme of a close body of ice, and of getting to leeward of a projecting point of the coast, off which we observed several small islands, that we expected would afford such protection as to admit of our landing with less difficulty.
The cape which formed the southern promontory of the bay was, at the request of Commander Crozier, named Cape Downshire, after his kind and lamented friend, the late estimable marquis. Its northern point was called Cape Adare, after my friend Viscount Adare, M.P. for Glamorganshire, who always evinced a warm interest in our undertaking. It is a remarkable projection of high, dark, probably volcanic, cliffs, and forms a strong contrast to the rest of the snow-covered coast. Some rocks, that were observed to lie several miles to the north and west of Cape Adare, showing their black summits conspicuously amongst the white foam of the breakers, were named Dunraven rocks. We obtained soundings in one hundred and sixty-