426 M'CLURE'S EXPLORATIONS. 



four hundred yards of the face of the cliffs, and fifteen 

 fathoms water when actually touching them. The lane 

 of water had diminished to two hundred yards in width 

 where broadest ; and even that space was much ham- 

 pered by loose pieces of ice aground or adrift. In some 

 places the channel was so narrow that the quarter-boats 

 had to be topped up to prevent their touching the cliffs 

 upon the one hand, or the lofty ice upon the other ; and 

 so perfectly were they running the gauntlet, that on 

 many occasions the ship could not " round to," for want 

 of space. 



Their position was full of peril ; yet they could but 

 push on, for retreat was now as dangerous as progress. 

 The pack was of the same fearful description as one 

 they had fallen in with in the offing of the Mackenzie 

 River, during the previous autumn ; it drew forty and 

 fifty feet of water, and rose in rolling hills upon the 

 surface, some of them a hundred feet from base to sum- 

 mit. Any attempt to force the frail ship against such 

 ice was of course mere folly ; all they could do was to 

 watch for every opening, trust in the mercy of God, 

 and push ahead in the execution of their duty. If the 

 ice at such a time had set in with its vast force against 

 the sheer cliff, nothing, they all felt, could have saved 

 them. 



Enough has been said to give a correct idea of the 

 peril incurred at this stage of the voyage, without en- 

 tering into minute details of the hair-breadth escapes 

 hourly taking- place ; but one instance may be given as 

 a sample of the rest. After the 20th of August the In- 

 vestigator lay helplessly fixed off the north-west of 

 Banks's Land ; the wind had pressed in the ice, and for 

 a while all hopes of further progress were at an end. 

 On the 29th of August, however, a sudden move took 

 place, and a moving floe struck a huge mass to 



