36 DESCRY TWO VESSELS. 



again set the studding-sails, by midnight we were 

 making some progress through the water. 



Early on August 5th the ice, which for a brief 

 interval had disappeared in a manner altogether 

 unaccountable, was again reported to be a-head, 

 and we shortly found ourselves beset by it on all 

 sides, not, however, so compact as to stop us 

 altogether. In this we might be considered 

 fortunate, for, at 4 h a. m., a ship and brig, sup- 

 posed to belong to the Hudson's Bay Company, 

 were observed working through heavy-packed 

 ice to leeward, the brig considerably a-stern of 

 the other. Our colours were immediately hoisted 

 at the mast-head, but were not answered ; and, 

 every moment being precious, I pushed on with- 

 out further notice of them, until about 7 h a. m. 

 I was arrested, in my turn, by a continuous line 

 of the same pack, which it was now evident run 

 in towards, if not altogether to, the upper 

 Savage Islands. At first, the prospect of de- 

 tention seemed inevitable, but few things are 

 more uncertain than the navigation among ice, 

 and, however desperate the situation, there is 

 generally room for hope. So it turned out now 

 in our case ; for, when measures w r ere about to 

 be taken to reduce sail, lanes of water were dis- 

 tinguished round the deep bay or inlet formed 

 within the upper Savage Islands ; and, although 

 the following of these lanes involved the ne- 



