134 EXPANSION OF OPEN WATER. 



seemed to be nearing us. The wind now began 

 to abate, and having caught a glimpse of the 

 land, we found that the ship had been driven 

 together with the pack to the eastward. The 

 temperature from 3°+ had risen to 26° + , the 

 breeze still prevailing from the west. 



During the afternoon the sky continued over- 

 cast, and the w T ind freshening up from the same 

 quarter, the ice began to set to the northward as 

 well as eastward, so that after a boisterous night, 

 we found ourselves much nearer to Cape Comfort. 

 The water too had increased considerablv, reach- 

 ing now from Cape Bylot to Cape Comfort ; 

 a second lane had been formed which, branch- 

 ing to seaward in a semicircular shape, joined 

 the principal opening near its two extremes, 

 and thus completely insulated the pack in 

 the centre of which the ship was fixed. How 

 far the channels led, and whether, supposing 

 we could have entered them, serviceable use 

 could have been made of them, was at best 

 matter of conjecture merely ; but on the 

 other hand, it was clear, that the separation of the 

 ice, so as to admit of the trial, would have 

 exposed us to the irresistible crushing of the 

 consolidated masses around, masses very different 

 from the straggling pieces which formerly 

 knocked against us, and cemented into vast 

 floes, whose momentum the ship, strong as she 



