OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 79 



N.N.W., when we cast ofFwithalight air of westerly Avind, and got all the boats '821. 

 ahead, but having gained that distance were a^in obliged to make fast. In \J^ 

 the afternoon the breeze freshened from the southward, with rain, and the ice 

 soon after slackening a little about us wc once more made sail, in the hope only 

 of being drifted a short distance among the ice, but without the least apparent 

 chance of forcing even a hundred yards through it in the regular way. It is, 

 however, impossible to judge when circumstances arc about to improve among 

 the ice, which now opened so much immediately after we moved, that we 

 advanced eight or nine miles almost without difficulty ; and could still have 

 continued to run had not night come on, when, being within a few miles of 

 the small islands to the southward and eastward of Baffin Island, we shortened 

 sail and made the ships fast to a floe-piece, with the intention of pushing in-shore 

 at break of day. It was now my wish to sail through the opening last disco- 

 vered between Baffin and Vansittart Islands, in order to save as much time as 

 possible in recommencing the examination of the continental coast at the 

 point to which it had already been traced. Our soundings varied during the 

 night from one hundred and three to sixty-one fathoms. 



At four A.M. on the 5th we cast off and made sail for the land, with a fresh Wed. 5. 

 breeze from the south-east. The ice was closely packed against the land near 

 the passage I had intended to try and, as it appeared slack more to the east- 

 ward, I determined to run between the south-cast point of Baffin Island and 

 the smaller islands lying off it. The wind drawing more to the eastward as 

 we approached the channel, we had several tacks to make in getting through, 

 but carried a good depth of water on each side though its breadth docs not 

 exceed three quarters of a mile. As wc now advanced to the northward, we 

 found less and less obstruction, the main body of the ice having been carried 

 to the southward and eastward by the late gale which had in so extraordinary 

 a manner drifted us in the same direction. This was one of the opportunities 

 I have before described as the most favourable that ever occur for making 

 progress in these seas. We had therefore a fine run during the day along the 

 east side of Sturges Bourne Islands ; for, having found the passages between 

 them still choked Avith ice, we were obliged to run to the northward with the 

 hope of attaining our present object. A large opening in the land now came in 

 sight in the N.N. W., being that discovered by Mr. Ross on the 28th of August, 

 and which had led us to suppose tlie land we then stood on would prove in- 

 sular, and that some communication would be found to the northward of it with 

 Gore Bay. For this opening therefore our course was directed, and iu tlie 



