50 ship's progress through the ice, 



of unequal breadth ; boring through which, we 

 seemed to be, as it were, ploughing a furrow 

 towards the north. Advancing in this manner, 

 I was glad to see that there was, a few miles off, 

 ice of a looser kind ; and no effort was left unprac- 

 tised to reach it. Just as we were on the very 

 point of succeeding, two floes were attracted, or 

 driven by a current together, and effectually 

 jammed us in. Happily the breeze at the same 

 moment freshened ; and, after some delay, in 

 which the floe of last winter's formation began 

 to crack and yield, while that of the previous 

 season remained firm as a rock, the ship, break- 

 ing a large mass away and forcing it before 

 her bluff bows, cleared a passage through. It 

 would be a tedious repetition to relate all the 

 trouble and anxiety that we experienced in forcing 

 through the heavy barrier, which, I am of opi- 

 nion, hangs about this part of the strait from 

 the influence of opposing currents issuing, the 

 one from the north, probably through the open- 

 ing formed by Broken Point, and the others from 

 between the islands to the south. The influ- 

 ence of the same barrier, I apprehend, aided by 

 easterly gales, produces the interruption occa- 

 sionally met with by the Hudson Bay ships on 

 their homeward passage, and which but a short 

 time ago compelled them to winter in the 

 country. However this may be, we were heartily 



