332 WATER ANKLE-DEEP. [CHAP.V. 



that they should have experienced much diffi- 

 culty in picking their way over a surface so 

 extremely rugged, but I was scarcely prepared 

 to hear, as was the fact, that water had been 

 found ankle deep. This was the effect of one 

 day's sun ; and if the thaw continued at the 

 same rate, there seemed every probability that a 

 large portion of the lighter pieces of ice would 

 soon be resolved into water, and that our release 

 would be earlier than we had anticipated. 



May 5th. We appeared to be something 

 nearer to Nottingham Island, which, from being 

 high and hilly, now declined by an easy slope to 

 the southward. A lane or two of water was still 

 open ; and, besides many extensive floes in shore, 

 one, at least a mile and a half long and quite 

 even, was discovered at no great distance from 

 us. Such floes could not have subsisted where 

 we had been ; and it was therefore inferred that, 

 up to that time at least, there had been no 

 violent pressure in this quarter. This was the 

 more remarkable, as it is a fact well attested 

 that, about the spring tides, when the ice has 

 space to move about in, the violence and irregu- 

 larity of cross sets, together with that unac- 

 countable " bore," or furious rush of waters, of 

 which I have so often had occasion to speak, 

 have been experienced by all who have fre- 

 quented these straits, perplexing the Commanders, 



