370 ESCAPE A SERIOUS NIP. [September, 



For this purpose I despatched Lieutenant Cheyne and 

 Dr. Lyall to examine the coast for traces, cairns, etc., and 

 to visit, if practicable, the shelf-summit of Cape Osborn, 

 on which I had imagined that I saw a very large cairn,* 

 now transformed in importance to a tent. 



September 5. The 'Pioneer' rejoining at 4.30 A.M., 

 again took us in tow, but not making sufficient progress 

 to overtake the land party. The boat's crew, on their 

 return, reported having seen the remains of a bivouac 

 of last season, where tea-leaves and preserved-meat tins 

 were distinctly observable. About two P.M. the party 

 returned without finding traces of any late visitors. A 

 loose, disturbed cache, formed from the stones of an old 

 Esquimaux encampment, was reported by Dr. Lyall. 



The ship having gained the bay to the southward of 

 Cape Eden, the 'Pioneer' fouled her fan with our tow- 

 rope, and was placed /tors de combat so long, that we 

 warped, on and had gained a very critical point, when 

 she came up, but too late to carry us through and rather 

 in our way astern, as a very serious nip was on us, and 

 we barely escaped between two such huge masses of 

 ice, one aground in six fathoms, that our fate would 

 very soon have been determined. The angular tongue 

 of a huge floe -piece how many feet thick I cannot 

 say had taken its hold just under our fore-channels. 

 Our opposite broadside took against the grounded hum- 

 mock, half-way up our rigging. Fortunately a twenty- 

 pound blast broke the nip at the critical moment, and 



* This supposed cairn turned out to be a very remarkable pyramid 

 on a jutting buttress of the cliff, showing out on particular points of 

 view, but beyond the actual Cape. 



