ENTERING SMITH'S SOUND. 73 



mg to the eastward toward Cape Saumarez, we found 

 a passage through the pack near the shore, but after- 

 ward the greater part of the day was passed in a pro- 

 voking calm, during which, being embarrassed by a 

 strong tidal-current that set us alternately up and 

 down the coast, we were obliged almost constantly to 

 use the boats to keep ourselves clear of the bergs, 

 which were very numerous, and many of them of im- 

 mense size. We were, however, at length gratified to 

 find ourselves passing with a fair wind into Smith's 

 Sound, the field of our explorations. Standing over 

 toward Cape Isabella, we had for a time every pros- 

 pect of good fortune before us, but a heavy pack was, 

 after a while, discovered from the mast-head," and this 

 we were not long in reaching. 



This pack was composed of the heaviest ice-fields 

 that I had hitherto seen, and its margin, trending 

 to the northeast and southwest, arrested our further 

 progress toward the western shore. Many of the 

 floes were from two to ten feet above the water, thus 

 indicating a thickness of from twenty to a hundred 

 feet. Had they been widely separated, I should have 

 attempted to force a passage ; but they were too 

 closely impacted to allow of this being done with any 

 chance of safety to the schooner. 



The ice appeared to be interminable. No open 

 water could be discovered in the direction of Cape 

 Isabella. The wind, being from the northeast, did not 

 permit of an exploration in that direction ; so we ran 

 down to the southwest, anxiously looking for a lead, 

 but without discovering any thing to give us encour- 

 agement. 



We were not, however, permitted to come to any 

 conclusions of our own as to what course we should 



