﻿1848. DETAINED BY ICE. 301 



is all that can be reckoned upon. Short, however, 

 as the summer proved to be, neither that nor our 

 tardy commencement of the sea voyage would have 

 prevented me from coasting the south shore of 

 Wollaston Land, and examining it carefully, could 

 I have reached it, for the distance to be performed 

 would have been but little increased by doing so. 

 The sole hinderance to my crossing Dolphin and 

 Union Straits was the impracticable condition of the 

 close-packed drift-ice. In wider seas, where fields 

 and large floes exist, these offer a pretty safe re- 

 treat for a boat-party in times of pressure, and 

 progress may be made by dragging light boats like 

 ours over them; but the ice that obstructed our 

 way was composed of hummocky pieces, of irregu- 

 lar shape, and consequently ready to revolve if 

 carelessly loaded or trod upon. At certain times 

 of the tide, moreover, they were hustled to and fro 

 with much force. 



As only small packs of ice and few in number 

 were seen off the Coppermine by Sir John Franklin 

 in 1820, by myself in 1826, and by Dease and 

 Simpson in 1836 and 1837, being four several 

 summers, the sight of the sea entirely covered so 

 late in August was wholly unexpected, and I attri- 

 buted so untoward an event to the north-west 

 winds havino; driven the ice down from the north 

 in the first instance, and to the easterly gales, 

 which afterwards set in, pressing it into that 



