OUR PROGRESS ARRESTED. 395 



fifteen or twenty miles abreast of us, and thence 

 bent into a deep bay, trending afterwards to the 

 northward until it bore N. by W. and blended 

 with the icy horizon. The wind had so far acted 

 as to drive the whole mass near a quarter of a 

 mile away from the eastern shore, leaving thereby 

 a clear passage for a length of fourteen miles in 

 a N.E. direction. Beyond this we could not 

 define any land, except a blue bluff, whose base 

 was white with refracted ice, and which bore still 

 farther to the right. It was evident, therefore, 

 that we were at the narrowest part of the open- 

 ing, where it would be most convenient to cross ; 

 if, indeed, this were not the only place in which 

 we could safely do so, in an undecked boat, al- 

 ready damaged from the shocks she had received 

 in the falls and rapids ; and, however anxious, as 

 it may well be supposed I was, to achieve as 

 much as possible, I could not but be sensible 

 that to have pursued the lane to the eastward, 

 and, according to the Esquimaux's outline, 

 rounded the bluff to the southward, would only 

 have been to depart more widely from our course, 

 and to retrograde instead of advancing. Nor 

 was this all : to have taken that course, amidst 

 the obstacles which surrounded us, might per- 

 haps have involved us in perilous if not in inex- 

 tricable difficulties ; for the westerly gales, which 

 on these shores not unfrequently commence 



