142 NO PROSPECT OF RELEASE. [MarC/l, 



found it all tight and more compact than it was for se- 

 veral days before I returned to my old position. Sent 

 the Master to get soundings along the floe edge we were 

 fast to, supposing the season so far advanced that this 

 would have been my winter-quarters. There was water 

 along the land to tlie westward, but at this time last 

 year Skene Bay was closed, and the position under 

 Griffiths I consider as safe as my former under Dealy 

 Island. The increased distance would have been no 

 obstacle to my putting in execution my former determi- 

 nation relative to the disposition of the crew. It blew 

 very hard from the north-west, with heavy drift and very 

 cold, until midnight of the 8th, when it suddenly cleared; 

 no ice in sight ; slipped and ran off, but hardly got off 

 more than three miles before we were brought up with 

 sludge ice fourteen inches thick, with the pack to the 

 eastward of us, and became perfectly immovable. ' In- 

 trepid' was just able to get through it ; after three or 

 four hours she got the ship's head round with wind and 

 steam. We just got back to fast ice before the wind 

 increased again to a strong gale with a heavy drift. 



"At three A.M. of the 10th the wind again lulled; the 

 drift fell. Leaving the ship fast, with orders to get up 

 provisions sufficient to complete ' Intrepid' to a year for 

 seventy men, should I find it or consider it practicable 

 for her to get down without ' Resolute/ I left in ' In- 

 trepid/ steering for centre of Byam Martin Island ; we 

 soon got into sludge, but found it much lighter than the 

 day before ; we got about half-way over, or about eight 

 miles from the ship. Finding that ' Intrepid' could get 

 along well through it without steam, we hauled our wind 



