354 snow. [chap. vi. 



with more than usual violence, bringing with it 

 so much snow, that, in the course of four hours, 

 it lay eight inches deep on the deck ; deeper, 

 that is to say, than had been the case on any 

 previous occasion, in the same time. The ice 

 was closely wedged, without a single hole of 

 water so far as we could see. 



On June 6th there was a partial slackening 

 out, within a few hundred yards of the ship, but 

 the whole soon closed again, forming one un- 

 broken body in every direction. That such had 

 not always been the case in other seasons we are 

 assured from the fact, that Bylot and Baffin 

 found little or no impediment to their sailing 

 past this very spot in June. Still, the Hudson's 

 Bay Company's ships, admonished no doubt by 

 experience, seldom or never leave the Thames 

 earlier than the 6th June ; and, without ques- 

 tion, last year they must have found that date 

 quite soon enough. At noon the weather, which 

 had been misty, cleared a little, but not suf- 

 ficiently so to enable us to see land. The tem- 

 perature varied from 25° to 49° +. The wind 

 now veered to west, and, like that from the op- 

 posite quarter, brought snow, from which indeed 

 we were seldom exempted. The ice presented 

 an appearance of opening, and with a fresh 

 breeze down, or, in other words, out of the 

 Straits, it might have been supposed that 



