1851.] PASS UP PRINCE OF WALES' STRAIT. 335 



again fairly afloat, but so surrounded with it that we only drifted 

 with tin- pack, having been able to use our sails but twins and then 

 only for a f.-w hours, up to the 14th of August, when we attained our 

 furthest northern position in Prince of Wales Strait, lat. 73 14' N., 

 long. 115 33' 30" AY. 



August 10. Finding our passage into Barrow Strait obstructed by 

 north-east winds, setting large masses of ice to the southward, which 

 had drifted the ship fifteen miles in that direction dining the last twelve 

 hours, bore up to run to the southward of Baring Island. 



Augmt 20. Lat. 74 27' N., long. 122 32' W. ; have had clear 

 water to reach thus far, running within a mile of the coast the whole 

 distance, when our progress was impeded by the ice resting upon the 

 shore. Secured to a large grounded floe piece in twelve fathoms ; ice 

 appears to have been but recently detached from the coast. 



August 29. Ship in great danger of being crushed or driven on 

 shore, by the ice coming in with heavy pressure from the Polar Sea, 

 driving her along within one hundred yards of the land for half a mile, 

 heeling her 15, and raising her bodily one foot eight inches, when we 

 again became stationary, and the ice quiet. 



September 10. Ice again in motion, and ship driven from the land 

 into the main pack, with heavy gale from south-west. Succeeded in 

 getting clear from main pack, and secured to a large grounded floe, lat. 

 74 29' N., long. 122 20' W. 



September 19. Clear water along shore to eastward : cast off, and 

 worked in that direction, with occasional obstructions and several nar- 

 row escapes from the stupendous Polar ice, until the evening of the 

 23rd, when we ran upon a mud-bank, having six feet under the bow 

 and five fathoms astern ; hove off without sustaining any damage. 



September 24. Daylight, observed Barrow Strait full of ice, and 

 large masses setting into the bay ; determined on making this our 

 winter-quarters, and finding a well-sheltered spot upon the south end 

 of the shoal upon which we last night grounded, ran in and anchored 

 in four fathoms, lat, 74 6' N., long. 117 54' W. This night were 

 frozen in, and have not since moved. The position is most excellent, 

 being well protected from the heavy ice by the projection of the reef, 

 which throws it clear of the ship six hundred yards. 



The currents along the coast of the Polar Sea appear to be influenced 

 in their direction, more or less, by the winds ; but certainly on the 

 west side of Baring Island there is a permanent set to the eastward ; at 

 one time we found it as much as two knots during a perfect calm, and 



