384 CHEERFUL LABOURS. [CHAP.VI. 



wedged, but was more to the westward, more 

 packed, and altogether more unfavourable to the 

 prospect of a speedy release than a month before. 

 In fact, all depended on the direction of the 

 wind, as must ever be the case in the navigation 

 of these seas. Unless that be favourable for 

 driving out to sea the western packs of heavy 

 ice, all human efforts must be vain. Land was 

 once made out, bearing S.S.W., and the weather 

 was dull and cold, the temperature having got to 

 30° + . The new moon brought us a north-east 

 breeze, with a dark gloomy sky and abundance 

 of rain, which did not cease throughout the 

 niffht. One or two small calves started up from 

 between the cracks alongside, and on July 2d 

 the ice began to open out a little, having a 

 limited space to move in towards the main land 

 to leeward. The temperature varied only from 

 32° to 33° + . No variation of any sort inter- 

 vened to relieve the dull aspect of affairs, but 

 July 3d at least brought us what we had not ex- 

 perienced for a fortnight — a fine day. We now 

 discovered one part of the floe, on the starboard 

 beam, less thick than the part at which we had 

 been working ; and the men having got the ice- 

 saw to work, and singing to time as they lifted 

 it up and let it down, made such progress, 

 that in the course of the forenoon, though the 

 general thickness averaged from twelve to four- 



