418 FLOES NUMEROUS. [CHAP.VI. 



plicable to the medical officers, as we had had the 

 advantage of the best provisions, and assuredly 

 every comfort which persons situated as we 

 were could possess. At l h p. m. catching a 

 glimpse of an opening we left the floe, but after 

 some boring were stopped, and again held on by 

 the heaviest floe we had seen since the winter. 

 There had been immense pressure on it, as with 

 the floes in Fox's Channel, whence, judging 

 from its dirty yellow colour, it had in all pro- 

 bability come. In the evening we made another 

 attempt, which, after an hour's trial, was again 

 relinquished, and we made fast as before to 

 another floe, a great number of which lay in 

 every direction. 



July &5th. The westerly breeze now failed 

 us, and up to noon the ice was infinitely too 

 close to permit our moving. After some time 

 however, the ship was warped from floe to floe, 

 as circumstances admitted, and at 5 h p.m., just 

 when it was thought that further progress was 

 hopeless, and we were about to make fast, the ice 

 gradually opened out, and sail being immedi- 

 ately crowded on the ship, she went with hard 

 boring between very heavy ice, at the rate of 

 two or three knots an hour, as was imagined, 

 directly towards the north shore. 



July 26th. It fell partially calm, but after 

 8 n a. m, a light air sprang up \ and, though com- 



