1853.] ENTER PORT REFUGE. 357 



shoaled our water suddenly to eight fathoms, not far 

 from a low point spitting westerly from a very tempting 

 bay, in which I had for some time fancied that shelter 

 could be obtained, provided the depth afforded safe ri- 

 ding. Our greatest danger however still threatened : un- 

 less the ice to windward was aiiested in its motion, it 

 would inevitably crush us in a few moments ! and this 

 was feared. One of the Ice Quarter-masters observed : 

 " If the weather floe parts, Sir, it will walk over her!" 

 Not a very pleasant prospect ! The customary prepara- 

 tions for deserting the ship were already cared for, and 

 we waited, in great anxiety, the result of the next half- 

 hour. If both vessels were annihilated, life, I think, 

 might possibly have been safe; but we had two sick 

 men, cripples, and for these my interest was principally 

 engaged. The weather ice was arrested, as afterwards 

 ascertained (under frightful pressure, higher than our 

 lower mastheads), on Point Preservation ; the gale lulled, 

 and I was able to send a boat to sound up to the land- 

 floe inside the point before alluded to. The report of 

 " eleven fathoms within, and nine close to the point," 

 soon put a new face on affairs ; warps were run out to 

 windward, and, under trysails and jib, the ship soon 

 reached one of the most secure little ports in these re- 

 gions. On landing at the spit I found the depth " close 

 to" sufficient, if compelled to winter, to admit of the 

 \rssels seeming to the land, having six fathoms at sixty 

 feet from the beach, and space for twenty vessels in the 

 then open creek, which carried to its bend, at a later date, 

 ten fathoms : to this I gave the name of Port Refuge. 

 The view from the hill now forcibly impressed on iny 



