HUDSON'S STRAIT. 127 



voyage,) a current had set us thirty miles east- 1824. 

 ward of our reckoning, which shews its rate at Sept. 

 about a mile and a half an hour. 



This having been the case on the preceding 

 day's run, renders it evident, that the long fetch 

 from the bottom of Hudson's Bay, during the 

 prevalence of a southerly wind, must bring a 

 great pressure of water on the channels east 

 and west of Mansel Island, overpowering all 

 tides, and extending even beyond the narrows 

 of the passage. This may account for the dan- 

 gerous " races" we had twice passed through 

 off Cape Southampton, as well as that of which 

 I have spoken above, caused by the opposition 

 of the tide of flood to this great southern rush 

 of water. During the night there was a con- 

 tinued calm, with heavy rain, yet we found 

 ourselves carried in the first watch to about 

 ten miles to the eastward of Cape Wolsten- 

 holm. 



Towards dawn of the 25th, a light breeze 

 sprang up from the eastward, and as the day 

 broke, we found ourselves about ten miles from 

 the opening between Nottingham and Salis- 

 bury Islands, off which a close but narrow 

 stream of ice was lying. As we now had but 

 a few days' water remaining, I gladly stood for 

 the ice, and heaving to at eight A.M., sent the 



