OF HUDSON'S STRAIT. 19 



make for it in preference to Resolution Island. 1824. 

 At all events my having done so has answered August. 

 one good end, by proving that the old esta- 

 blished custom of making the latter is by far 

 the best*. 



In the evening we passed a straight piece 

 of drift fir, about sixteen feet in length, and 

 apparently quite sound. On this day the 

 crow's nest was fitted at the mast head, and 

 the spike plank crossed. A boom foresail 

 was also bent^ and every preparation made for 

 navigating amongst ice. We ran N.w.bN. all 

 the night, in the course of which a few pieces 

 of ice were seen. 



The wind freshened from the southward on 

 the morning of the 3d, and heavy rain set in 

 for the day. We passed several bergs and a 

 quantity of tangle weed, and at thirty minutes 

 after nine, A.M., came to a pack of loose de- 

 cayed ice. Shortening sail we entered it, the 

 Snap, for her better protection, following close 

 in our wake. Having passed this, we soon 



* On my homeward passage I was enabled, from seve- 

 ral very satisfactory observations, to discover a far greater 

 and more important cause for my having made so much 

 southing, which was the disproportionate increase of de- 

 viation with the ship's head to the westward, to be found 

 more fully stated in the Appendix. 



C 2 



