278 SIR J. C. ROSS'S EXPEDITION. 



following few days they made slow progress, and were 

 often in difficulty. On the morning of the 20th, when 

 they were off the Three Islands of Baffin, in latitude 14 

 north, at the clearing away of a fog, they saw the Lord 

 Gambier at some distance, standing under all sail to the 

 southward the unusually bad state of the ice having 

 overturned her master's hopes, and altered his purpose. 

 They pursued their course northward arnid much per- 

 plexity ; and, though still fully expecting to bore their 

 way through the pack, they were so excessively retarded 

 by calms and barriers, as soon to lose all hope of being 

 able to accomplish any considerable part of their mission 

 before the setting in of winter. They spared no exer- 

 tions, but forced a progress, and even drove on at the 

 expense of danger. 



On the 20th of August, during a strong breeze from 

 the north-east, the ships, under all sail, bored through 

 a moderately thick pack of ice, studded with perilously 

 large masses ; and they sustained severe shocks, yet, 

 happily, did not receive any serious damage. They 

 gained the open water on the afternoon of that day, in 

 latitude 75| north, and longitude 68 west, and then 

 steered direct for Pond's Bay. That, as is well known, 

 is the grand scene of the whale-fishery ; and thither the 

 expedition went to inquire of any whaler's crew who 

 might have got across to the west, and also of the 

 Esquimaux who annually visit that locality, whether 

 they had seen anything of the missing adventurers. 



On the 22d of August they approached the shore, 

 about ten miles south of Pond's Bay, and saw the main 

 pack so closely pressed home to the land, some three or 

 four miles further south, as to leave no room for ships 

 or boats to pass. They next stood in to the bay, and 

 paused within half a mile of the points on which the 

 Esquimaux are known to have their summer residences j 



