34 CAPTAIN m'CLURe's DESPATCHES. 



nothing but one mass of limestone, without the shghtest vegetation ; 

 the traces of animals, so numerous 15 miles farther west, are nowhere 

 in this barren ground to be met with. 



On the 1 7th the westerly winds ceased, and were succeeded by one 

 from the eastward, with a rise of temperature from 11 to 21 degrees, 

 which, by dayhght of the 19th, had increased to 32, with water 

 extending along the coast three miles in width. We immediately 

 cast off, and at 7 a.m. rounded the point, whence the land falls 

 backE.S.E. Our progress was slow from many causes, — the copper 

 being torn and projecting from 4 to 12 inches from the bottom, light 

 winds, and an ice-encumbered sea, so that at 3 p.m. our further 

 advance was arrested by the pack touching the land and extending 

 with unbroken line to the northward as far as the eye could reach. 

 Our day's work did not exceed 15 miles, when we were compelled 

 to make fast to the land ice, which along the whole of this coast is 

 of the most massive and terrific dimensions I have ever witnessed. 

 There was a little selection of berth on a coast-line nearly straight ; but 

 a slight indentation, protected cast and west by two large pieces of a 

 broken floe 30 feet above the water, gave hopes of some shelter ; when, 

 at G p.m., the water and loose ice, which was before perfectly still, 

 suddenly rushed forward at the rate of two knots an hour, and, striking 

 against the vessel, forced her from her anchors wath such violence that 

 she was driven astern upon a hard point of the floe, which raised her 

 12 inches ; but, fortunately, she held until the rush was over, which 

 swept away our eastern bulwark, but did no other damage. We then 

 warped to the western side of the floe, where a small space was blasted 

 for the bow, in which we quietly remained during the night. 



At daylight of the 20th, finding the ice loose and drifting, though 

 a perfect calm, a mile and a half an hour to the eastward, we cast 

 ofl^, and, laying hold of a large floe-})iece, were dragged along close by 

 the grounded ice, which with some diflictdty was avoided by shifting- 

 round the floe as it canted towards us. i\.t noon, having a light air from 

 the westward, made sail, but soon had reason to regret it, as it 

 shortly failed, and, the ice filling the land water, it gradualy ;! jrced 

 the vessel into the pack, w4iicli hitherto we had been so anxious 

 and careful to avoid. As the only hope of navigating this sea con- 

 sists in keeping close to the shore, it now became evident that 

 every exertion must be made by warping to "regain the land; which, 

 under the circinnstances of the ice being in motion, with much that 

 was small and loose filling up the intervals between the larger pieces, 

 which allowed a secure footing for the men, was diflicult, laborious, and 

 anxious in the extreme, as with every precaution they frequently fell 

 in. After seven hours' incessant work, we succeeded, as the night closed, 

 in reaching a huge and solid floe that had just been upturned, three of 

 its sides being 25 feet })erpendicular, grounded in 29 fathoms on the 

 outer edge, and havhig 10^ upon the inner one, around which was scat- 

 tered much debris, part of its original self that had crumbled from the 

 pressure against a cHfF, up which it had been forced fnll 70 feet, and 

 where a large mass was still remaining about a mile to the westward of a 

 cape (Austen), 400 feet in height, which is stratified, and of the same 

 description as Nelson's Head, where we secured for the night. 



At daylight of the 21st, a thick fog, with hail, permitted a very circum- 

 scribed view ; but as the ice appeared loose in the direction of the cape, at 

 5 a.m. we started, and, grazing round it within 15 yards, found ourselves 



