3:2 IMPEDED BY FOG AND ICE. 



while boring through the packed pieces, or en- 

 deavouring to force some mass aside, the officers 

 were anions: the foremost over the bows to assist 

 in carrying out an ice-anchor with a line to warp 

 the ship, or, with long poles, to push the ice 

 away from the stern, and all seemed really to enjoy 

 the novelty and excitement of the scene. 



The ice for the most part was old and rotten, 

 consisting of portions of broken floes, with square 

 blocks and hummocks on them. The weather 

 throughout the afternoon continued so thick, 

 that even ice could not be discerned above two 

 hundred yards off; and being, as we supposed, 

 near the north shore, I was not a little anxious 

 lest we should be driven by some violent cur- 

 rent against it an accident which, having ex- 

 perienced on a former occasion, I was by no 

 means desirous of encountering a second time. 

 Towards midnight, we found ourselves embar- 

 rassed amongst floes and very heavy jce, the 

 difficulty of avoiding which was much aug- 

 mented by the lightness of the breeze then 

 blowing from the south-west. However, in the 

 morning of August 3d, the breeze returning to 

 its old point of S. E. freshened a little, most 

 opportunely and fortunately for us, for the 

 weather continuing equally misty, we were be- 

 coming entangled amid large masses of ice which, 

 under the influence of a strong current, often 



