For this region of ice and snow which was believed to be a mass of gold-bearing rocks! But the result was one of bitter disappointment.

The captains were bewildered by the immense icebergs, "so vast that, as they melted, torrents poured from them in sparkling waterfalls".

One iceberg toppled over on to a ship and crushed it, though most of the sailors were picked up in the sea and saved.

In the thick mists the greater part of the fleet blundered into Hudson's Straits, yet did not realize that they had found a passage into the heart of Canada.

At last, disgusted with this land of bare rocks, ice, and snow, they filled up the ships with cargoes of stones supposed to contain gold, and straggled back to England.