318 HON. CAPTAIN PHIPPS. 



t D - ertions of a whole day, the ships were moved 



1/73. J r 



only the sixth of a mile, while they were during 

 the same time carried back two or three leagues 

 by the current. It was quite obvious therefore 

 that nothing could be effected with the saws, and 

 they were carried on board again. The ships were 

 now quite immovable, and drifting gradually with 

 the ice to the eastward, by which the prospect of 

 liberating them became hourly less apparent. 



Here it was that Nelson, who was coxswain of 

 one of the boats of the Carcass, went in pursuit 

 of a bear, followed at a distance by one of his 

 shipmates, and had so narrow an escape of his 



life. 



Early in the following morning three bears were 



killed upon the ice. 



On the 5th August, the probability of libe- 

 rating the ships becoming less every day, and the 

 season being far advanced, Captain Phipps was of 

 opinion that some speedy resolution was necessary 

 towards the preservation of the crews of the 

 ships, and as their proceedings in this endeavour 

 would entirely depend upon the distance to which 

 the packed ice might extend to the westward, Mr. 

 Walden, one of the midshipmen, and two pilots, 

 were sent to an island about twelve miles distant 

 to survey the state of the sea from its summit. 

 They returned on the following day, with the 



