PROSPECT OF WINTERING ON THE ICE. 123 



ice to make fast the hawsers, such was the rapid 

 change going on, that it is possible we might 

 have gained a few hundred yards ; but among 

 other grievances was this also, that the most 

 favourable opportunities invariably occurred when 

 advantage could not be taken of them. 



October 12th. — At daylight the different 

 articles which for convenience had been deposited 

 on the ice alongside were brought on board, and 

 unwilling to lose the slightest chance of advancing, 

 an effort was made to warp, but without success. 

 At noon we were almost in the same place as 

 before ; with this difference however, that the 

 entire body of ice was broken or separated into 

 single pieces as when we first entered it. The 

 wind had veered to north-east, the thermometer 

 remaining at 22°-j- ; and its unwelcome influence 

 w T as felt at the very next flood, when it drove the 

 moving ice dead on the land, of course inclosing 

 us in the general pressure. But, in truth, we 

 now hardly knew what to hope, or what to wish. If 

 the ice separated there was danger ; if it remained 

 compact, there was the recurring commotion 

 of every spring- tide, and the conjectural effect 

 of the storms which sooner or later must come 

 upon us. These reflections, and the responsi- 

 bility which devolved on me, embittered the 

 hours which I had fondly hoped to have passed 

 very differently. Plans for spending the winter, 



