346 CAPE DALHOUSIE. 



rather more than 300 miles : this accomphshed, future 

 operations would have to depend upon the contin- 

 gencies then arising. 



It was not our good fortune to achieve this grand 

 undertaking ; the season was, as regarded ourselves, 

 most unfortunate : a succession of northerly winds 

 drove the ice down upon the shores, along which 

 we had to pass, and our days were frittered away 

 in vexatious detentions or useless toil amongst rugged 

 ice masses and shallow waters. 



Near Cape Dalhousie, on the 3rd of August, we 

 encountered the largest ice we had yet seen, and 

 mounted to the top of one of the hummocks, fifty or 

 sixty feet high, to look round ; as from the boats our 

 view was very contracted, and the ice being so closely 

 packed that but few " lanes " were visible. In the 

 evening we had to break through the pack to regain 

 the shore, an occupation of three hours' severest 

 labour, though the neck through which we strove 

 to pass was not more than five hundi'ed yards broad, 

 but the ice was in large fields, or jointed together and 

 under-tongued, and being all in motion required 

 great management. We remained at Cape Dalhousie, 

 which is on an island, during the 4th, and reached 

 Nicholson's Island next evening, having in the run 

 observed some grampuses, a few seals, and quantities 



