292 SUSPICIOUS CRACKINGS. [CIIAP.V. 



were evidently ploughing up the intervening bay 

 ice. About 7 h 30 m p. m. a slight noise was heard 

 on both quarters, the wind then having got more 

 to the westward, from which however it sub- 

 sequently changed to N. E. with light snow. 

 A faint glimpse was caught of the aurora in the 

 same quarter. March 25th the body of ice again 

 moved easterly, and at daylight, some suspicious 

 cracking was audible to seaward ; while the wide 

 lane of bay ice, which had intervened between 

 our pack and that fixed to the shore, was now 

 diminished to three hundred yards of squeezed 

 up pieces, which, for the present, served as a 

 fender against the wall along shore. The weather 

 was too thick to make out objects distinctly ; but 

 from the appearance of the nearest land, we 

 seemed to have almost reached the place from 

 which we were blown off when the southerly 

 wind came. A crack in one of the remaining 

 large pieces was detected during the forenoon ; 

 and, in the early part of the afternoon, the ice to 

 seaward of the crack on the quarter began to 

 open out a little, allowing us to get soundings, 

 which were found in sixty-four fathoms, on a bot- 

 tom of gravel, consisting of grey granite and small 

 particles of limestone. The snow which fell a 

 few hours afterwards, was of a soft and flaky kind, 

 different from any we had seen since the autumn, 

 and betokening, as we hoped, a southerly wind. 



