OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 459 



CHAPTER XV. 



EXTRAORDINARY DISRUPTION OF ICE IN QUILLIAM CREEK- — SOME APPEARANCE OF 



SCURVY AMONG THE SEAMEN AND MARINES ACCOUNT OF A JOURNEY WITH SLEDGES 



TO COCKBURN ISLAND DISCOVERY OF GIFFORD RIVER COMMENCE CUTTING THE 



ICE OUTSIDE THE SHIPS TO RELEASE THEM FROM THEIR WINTER-QUARTERS 



CONSIDERATIONS RESPECTING THE RETURN OP THe' EXPEDITION TO ENGLAND 



UNFAVOURABLE STATE OF THE ICE AT THE EASTERN ENTRANCE OF THE STRAIT 



PROCEED TO THE SOUTHWARD SHIPS BESET AND DRIFTED UP LYON INLET 



DECEASE OF MR. GEORGE FIFE FINAL RELEASE FROM THE ICE, AND ARRIVAL IN 



ENGLAND REMARKS UPON THE PRACTICABILITY OP A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



Among the various changes which the warmth of the returning summer was i823. 

 now producing around us, none was more remarkable than that noticed by ^J^^^^ 

 Captain Lyon on his present excursion to Quilliam Creek, and which, in aThur. 17. 

 note received from him by the return of the sledges, on the 17th, he thus 

 describes : " Between the two points forming the entrance of the creek, we 

 saw a high wall of ice extending immediately across from land to land, and 

 on arriving at it found that by some extraordinary convulsion the floe had 

 burst upwards, and that immense masses of ice had been thrown in every 

 direction. Several blocks eight or nine feet in thickness and many yards in 

 diameter were lying on the level solid floe ; yet we were for some time at a 

 loss to discover whence they had been ejected, till at length we found a 

 hole or pool, which appeared so small as to be hardly capable of containing 

 the immense fragments near it ; yet from this place alone must they have 

 been thrown." 



Captain Lyon subsequently added, that " the water, which was found to 

 be quite fresh was running rapidly to seaward in this opening; and it seemed 

 probable that the vast accumulation from the streams at the head of the 

 creek, although at about ten miles' distance, had burst a passage and thus 

 ejected the ice. The force employed for this purpose may be conceived, 



3 n 2 



