492 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. XIII. 



months to come, was as obstinately and firmly fixed 

 as that of the Old Man of the Sea on the shoulders 

 of Sindbad the Sailor. That same land was Cape 

 Comfort, which Back had but too much reason to 

 call " a most inappropriate name :" for helpless as 

 the ship was, wedged in between blocks of ice, and 

 driven one day on one side and the next on the 

 other of the Cape of this obnoxious name, and some- 

 times within three or four miles of it, he had 

 reason to apprehend the worst consequences. For 

 the whole of September, in fact, he was whirled 

 about from Cape Comfort to Cape Bylof and Baffin's 

 Island, and back again ; and during all this whirling- 

 back wards and forwards, just as the wind, or the 

 current, or the tide directed, his case was almost 

 hopeless. Seeing the growing peril of his situa- 

 tion, Captain Back took the opinion of his officers 

 as to the probability of any further progress being 

 made that season to Repulse Bay : their unanimous 

 conviction, from the experience of the thirty-four 

 days in which the ship had been beset, was— that 

 anything more with that view was utterly imprac- 

 ticable ; and they suggested the adoption of certain 

 precautions in the event of their being obliged to 

 have recourse to the boats for safety. 



It was now pretty obvious that there was but 

 small chance for any escape from the " giant' for 

 nine or ten months to come ; and Back, therefore, 

 made up his mind to cut a dock in a favourable 



