142 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. September 



blowing from off the land, with a decided swell com- 

 ing up Bobeson Channel, indicating much open water 

 to the southward. From the look-out hill, which I 

 ascended with difficulty in consequence of the strong 

 wind, I observed. a w r ater-channel leading for ten miles 

 towards Cape Joseph Henry, but the land-ice was 

 still clinging to the shore as persistently as heretofore. 



By 10 a.m. the swell commenced breaking up the 

 ice inshore of the ship, and we had barely time to get 

 the boats which had been landed on board again, before 

 the ship was left in clear water, all the light ice and 

 some of the heaviest pieces near us being driven to sea. 



During the height of the gale five men in a whale- 

 boat mistook their orders, and left the ship to pull 

 to the shore, but being unable to reach it were carried 

 by the wind to seaward. Fortunately the boat was 

 brought up against one of the floebergs, about two 

 hundred yards distant from that against which the 

 ship rested. The gale was then blowing so furiously 

 that the men were unable to cross the intermediate 

 channel. After much work and great anxiety, we 

 succeeded in rescuing them from their dangerous 

 position, by veering another boat astern with a long 

 line and making the distressed men do the same with 

 a rope they fortunately had in their boat. Then by 

 sheering the two boats towards each other they met, 

 and the wearied and half frozen men were rescued. 



In the evening it continued to blow fiercely, with 

 a blinding snow-drift mixed with sand and small pebbles 

 which were carried by the fury of the storm. While 

 thinking anxiously over the condition of our travellers 

 during such a gale, I observed Commander Markham 



I 



