Chap. XIII. BACK'S ATTEMPT TO REACH REPULSE BAY. 491 



being to get near to Southampton Island, sometimes 

 beset, and occasionally getting into a lake of water. 

 On the 5th of September they were firmly fixed 

 in the ice ; and the whole of the officers, " with 

 axes, ice-chisels, handspikes, and long poles, began 

 the laborious process of cutting away the sludge 

 that bound the pieces together." The weather was 

 thick, and though they knew themselves to be near 

 the coast, they could not tell precisely whereabouts 

 they were, for their compasses were not to be trusted. 

 On the evening of the 13th of September the Cape 

 Comfort of Baffin bore north-north-east, and they 

 were not more than five miles from the nearest 

 rocks. Thumped about among hummocks of ice, 

 and " severely nipped," Back says — 



" At this time we appeared to be not more than four miles 

 from the land, which was broken into exposed bays, utterly 

 without shelter from the north, and blocked up with close - 

 packed ice. Not a pool of water was visible in any direc- 

 tion : to the mercy of Providence alone could we look for 

 rescue from our perilous situation. None but those who 

 have experienced it can judge of the weariness of heart, the 

 blank of feeling, the feverish sickliness of taste, which gets 

 the better of the whole man under circumstances such as 

 these. Not an incident occurred , to relieve, for a moment, 

 the dull monotony of our unprofitable detention."— p. 98. 



Half the month of September had now slipped 

 away, " and we were held still within sight of the 

 same land, as if it were in the grasp of a giant," — 

 a grasp which, from this time for eight or ten 



