TACKING TO THE S.W. 569 



cleared a little, tliough it rained violently: tlie wind 

 moderated. To the south and south-west there appeared 

 to be much open water, to which, exactly to wind- 

 ward, led a small channel blocked by several ice floes ; 

 and it seemed almost impossible to tack against a fresh 

 wind through this narrow pass. But it was our only 

 chance of escaping from a blockade in the ice. We 

 therefore set sail in the pouring rain, and made tacks for 

 the channel. But it was not till after much manoeuvring 

 that we succeeded in avoiding the floating blocks, and 

 clearing it. 



We had now so much sea-room that for a quarter of 

 an hour we were able to keep on one tack ; and on either 

 side, to the east as well as to the west, the ice lay com- 

 pletely closed. Towards evening we could go no further 

 either to the south or south-west, and open water was 

 only to be seen in the direction we had come from. The 

 violent south and south-east wind, which outside had no 

 doubt raged like a storm, had driven the ice so together 

 that the Captain felt convinced with such a wind there 

 could be no getting clear. As it was quite dark, we 

 anchored by a field to wait for clear weather and a change 

 of wind. During the night it sometimes rained violently, 

 but it blew more from the east, and the rising barometer 

 gave us expectations of better weather. 



The following day we again tried to go a little further 

 by steering along the field to the north-east, but here, 

 too, as we might have expected, the ice was closed ; so 

 on account of a fog which had come up with the east 

 wind, we dropped anchor once more. 



According to the log-reckoning our position was 

 73° 4' N. and 15° 32' W., but the current had drifted us 



