368 A GALE. [CHAP.VI. 



ultimately past the ship. The temperature sank 

 to 30°+ in the night, and the pools of fresh 

 water froze over. Much small snow also fell 

 without intermission up to noon of June 18th, 

 with a temperature of 43° + . The ice again 

 moved about with great irregularity, flattering 

 us one hour by its loose and disconnected 

 aspect, and annoying us the next by resuming 

 its compactness. Yet these transitions, unsatis- 

 factory as they were, betokened an activity of 

 some sort towards the entrance of the Straits, 

 which might therefore be clearing so as to allow 

 the western ice to drift down. The haziness of 

 the weather concealed the land, but the latitude 

 made us still farther south. 



In the afternoon soundings were obtained in 

 eighty-five fathoms, on a rocky bottom. The ice 

 opened out towards night, and a solitary walrus 

 showed its huge frame above water but made 

 no long stay. About midnight, and on June 

 19th, the wind blew from the E.S.E., and, 

 increasing to a gale, speedily set the ice in 

 motion all round us. Occasionally, streams of 

 drift-pieces drove, at the rate of two miles an 

 hour, against the corners or edges of our heavy 

 floe-ruins ; and though without any perceptible 

 shock or injury at the time, yet, as it afterwards 

 appeared, with effective force, since, at ll h a. m., 

 a large strip silently separated itself from our 



