EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 109 



by observations, we were at the distance of twenty- 

 five miles only from Duke of York's Bay ; but 

 we could not possibly advance so much as twenty- 

 five inches, or, with such a succession of untoward 

 winds, I should long ago have endeavoured to 

 get the ship into some place of safety. Birds of 

 all kinds had left us, and animals too, except a 

 solitary seal espied to-day from the mast-head : 

 this was immediately pursued by one of the 

 officers, but after a fatiguing walk over the ice, 

 he found the wary seal on the look-out and, 

 instead of waiting to be shot at, it prudently 

 disappeared through a hole in the ice. As the 

 scene of operations was daily growing more 

 circumscribed, and the outward body of ice 

 forced us further in shore, directly towards a bay, 

 bounded at either extreme by craggy rocks ; it 

 became important to get some knowledge of its 

 formation, in the hope of finding a shelter behind 

 some protruding rock or point, if circumstances 

 should permit us to get there. Accordingly a 

 party of officers and men, under the direction of 

 Lieutenant Smyth, having volunteered their ser- 

 vices, the remainder of the day was taken up in 

 making the requisite preparations for their de- 

 parture on the following morning. Sept. 23d 

 came on with thick weather and snow, which, 

 together with the quantity that had already fallen, 



