BARRIER TO FORMER DISCOVERIES. 43 



creased satisfaction that we rejoined her, even 

 before entering* our appointed place of rendez- 

 vous. The expedition now stood to the north- 

 ward, and we shortly saw the main body of 

 ice again, quite compact as before, extending 

 round the northern horizon in one vast un- 

 broken plain, connected so closely with the 

 shore, as to leave no passage whatever for a 

 vessel. 



The reader will readily believe that this great 

 mass of ice, which had hitherto prescribed limits 

 to northern discovery, and frustrated every at- 

 tempt to reach the Pole, was viewed by us with 

 intense curiosity, as the barrier with which it 

 had now become our object and duty to con- 

 tend in the prosecution of a similar enterprise. 

 We could perceive that it was composed of 

 masses too heavy to be turned aside by the 

 bows of our vessels, and too thick and too ex- 

 tensive for the saws with which we were pro- 

 vided to be of any practical utility ; in short, as 

 regarded the practicability of the passage, it was 

 the same formidable body it had been hitherto 

 represented. At the same time, however, it was 

 not that solid continent of ice described by 

 Phipps, nor was its general appearance so un- 

 promising but that the least sanguine among us 

 might entertain a hope that some lucky opening 



