CHAP. IV.] GALE ABATES. 215 



on the ice ; and though sometimes a glimpse 

 was caught of the land, all that could be ascer- 

 tained was, that it was low, and seemed very 

 much like an island. The latitude gave 64° 21' N., 

 from which, and the fact of the gale being north, 

 there was every reason to believe we were drift* 

 ing into the bay. Soundings gave one hundred 

 and three fathoms, and the lead had struck on 

 green mud. 



This uncomfortable weather continued through- 

 out the greater part of Sunday the 12th ; but in 

 the afternoon some of the people were able to 

 walk round the floe, and in so doing discovered 

 that a piece of ice one hundred and twenty 

 yards broad and two hundred yards long had 

 been separated from the western angle, and that 

 there were several cracks striking in a direction 

 towards the centre of it. Towards night the 

 wind got round to the westward, and soon after- 

 wards a loud grinding noise was distinctly heard 

 in that quarter; and, in the early part of the 13th 

 a wall of bay and other ice was seen at the 

 western edge of the floe, which had been forced 

 up perpendicularly to the height of eighteen 

 feet, without, however, doing much damage. 

 The mercury in the barometer continued to fall, 

 and, as the breeze abated, some light snow suc- 

 ceeded and kept falling for several hours. Land 



p 4 



