00 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. Jn,v 



during the intervening time the ice-stream had doubled 

 in width. The ships, consequently, did not arrive in 

 the clear water until past 1 a.m., of the 31st. Follow- 

 ing the edge of the pack but not entering it, we 

 were led off to the N.E., for about twenty-five miles ; 

 it then bent round to the S.E., and effectually cut us 

 off from the east coast of Greenland. 



It was now perfectly certain that our struggles 

 with the ice were about to commence, and I had to 

 choose whether to force our way through the pack or 

 to advance along the eastern or western shores of the 

 Sound. A middle passage through the heavy pack 

 drifting to the southward, through an ever-narrowing 

 channel, was quite out of the question, and Dr. Kane 

 had fully proved the impossibility of forcing a passage 

 along the exposed coast-line eastward of Eensselaer 

 Harbour. I therefore decided to proceed to Cape 

 Sabine, and endeavour to force our way along the 

 western shore. 



On returning to the western side of the strait, a 

 heavy snowstorm quite obscured the land and pre- 

 vented my selecting the best water-channels through 

 the pack. While waiting for the weather to clear, the 

 ships were made fast to the lee side of an iceberg, where 

 the faster drifting surface-ice kept a pool of water 

 clear. After passing an hour in this position, partly 

 from the wind shifting and partly by the iceberg 

 turning round, we found ourselves being forced 

 against the side of the berg by the pressure of the pack, 

 and were obliged to make a hurried retreat. For- 

 tunately our ice -anchors slipped out easily, or we should 

 have been entrapped. 



