262 SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



*^^^- on account of its being made of two pieces of red granite firmly cemented 

 s,^-v^ together, instead of pot-stone as usual. 



At high water this evening, which took place at four P.M., the berg on 

 which our chief dependence wa^ placed for security from external pressure, 

 rolled coinj)letely over, but still held fast on tlie ground. By the swell 

 thus occasioned a disruption of some of the land-ice also took place, which 

 for some time threatened to carry us adrift. At the same time a heavy 

 floe coming in promoted by its pressure this unwelcome disturbance, and 

 releasing a " calf" under the Fury's stern, made it rise with consider- 

 able violence against her counter. The stream-cable was now fastened 

 round tlie berg, as the only remaining security against our being forced on 

 shore, should the laud-ice wholly desert us; but the water failing from this 

 time gave us some hours' respite. 



The northei'ly breeze kept the ice moving to the southward during the 

 whole of the ebb-tide, as had been so often remarked before, shewing how 

 weak the stream of that tide is on this coast, comparatively with the other, and 

 the consequent necessity of holding on somewhere or other at all risks, when 

 the state of the ice does not admit of making any progress to the northward. 

 If the safety of a ship were alone to be consulted, it would undoubtedly 

 answer that purpo.se most effectually, to let her float about among the loose 

 ice in the offing; but a very few days' drift would in this case carry her to 

 Southampton Island, and the labour of weeks thus be inevitably lost. 

 Thur. IL At high water on the llth the ice, to which the Hecla's hawsers were 

 secured, was dislodged from the shore, partly by the rise of tide, and partly 

 by some heavy floe-picces coming against it : she therefore shifted her birth 

 a little to the northward of us, in order to avoid the danger of our being 

 too near each other, for our situation was now extremely precarious. 

 Several patients were about this time added to our sick-list, with lum- 

 bago and disordered bowels, occasioned by the incessant exertions and 

 exposure that had of late been required of them. The weather continued 

 what the Greenland sailors call " too fine," the wind being too light to 

 blow the ice off the land, and enable us to pursue our way to the northward. 



Our latitude was here 07° 1 1' 30 '; the longitude, by chronometers, 81° 24' 3T; 

 and the variation of the magnetic needle 70° 28' 12' westerly ; being a very 

 rapid increase in this phenomenon since our last observations on the ice. 

 The back land seen from the ships hereabouts is about nine hundred feet 

 above the sea, but shelving pretty gradually down towards the water. Here 



