OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 479 



northward, after the land-ice has once been detached from the shores ; for .'-23. 



1 ■ 1 1 August. 



having nothing by which to hold on, whenever the ice closes, she can only v-»-r>b^ 

 have the alternative of running into it or of being driven on shore. In the 

 former case she would in all probability, as we have seen, be drifted back 

 to the southward at the rate of about fifteen miles per day, and in the letter 

 could scarcely contrive to escape without serious damage. 



At daylight on the 1st of September we found ourselves within three or jjo^ j, 

 four hundred yards of the rocks on the eastern side of Winter Island, the 

 soundings having gradually decreased to eleven fathoms. Had it remained 

 dark an hour longer the Fury would in all probability have gone on shore ; 

 but happily the ice was slack enough to allow us to warp clear of danger 

 soon after day-break. The Hecla had in the mean time been drifted 

 round Cape Fisher, and several miles to the westward towards Lyon Inlet, 

 in wliich direction the Fury was also carried in the afternoon. The wind Wed. 3. 

 now setting in easterly, both ships drove with the ice up the inlet, and on 

 the 4th were abreast of Safety Cove, though fortunately on the western Thur.4. 

 side, clear of the dangers of the Bay of Shoals. A light breeze then spring- 

 ing up from the north-west, we again began to move down the inlet; and on 

 the evening of the 6th, after making a little progress with the sails in the Sat. 6. 

 course of the last two days, were once more met by an easterly breeze off 

 Cape Edwards, the ice being still as closely packed as possible. The young 

 ice also began at times to annoy us, by forming to a considerable thickness 

 at night, so as to cement the larger masses strongly together. The weather 

 now became chilly immediately after sunset, and we considered it rather a 

 premature decrease of temperature in this latitude, when the thermometer 

 was observed to fall to 24° on the morning of the 31st of August. A very 

 unusual deposition of dew took place every evening about this season, 

 immediately after the sun had set, and was in an hour or two converted into 

 hoar frost. 



In the afternoon of the 6th I was much pained at being informed by 

 telegraph from the Hecla, that Mr. Fife, Greenland Master of that ship, had 

 just expired, an event which for some days past there had been but too much 

 reason to apprehend ; the scurvy having within the last three weeks conti- 

 nued to increase considerably upon him. It is proper for me, however, both 

 in justice to the medical Officers under whose skilful and humane care he 

 was placed, and to the means Avith which we were in this way so liberally 

 supplied, to state that during a part of that time Mr. Fife had taken so great 

 a dislike to the various anti-scorbutics which were administered to him, that 



