120 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. AUGUST 



back a distance of half a mile to a very slight inden- 

 tation in the ice-wall, so small indeed that only one 

 end of the ship could be in the least protected ; the 

 stern being the most vulnerable part was secured in 

 the notch. As on the previous day, no sooner were we 

 secured than the pack closed in with the ebb-tide and 

 there was scarcely any water to be seen. 



With our weakened crew we found the constant 

 work with hawsers very laborious, and the services of 

 the capstan or windlass were constantly called into 

 requisition. 



Being close under the lee of Cape Union, the most 

 prominent point on the coast, the run of the ice as it 

 drifted to the northward retained its former course and 

 left a water-pool about two hundred yards broad in 

 the immediate neighbourhood of the ship ; there was 

 therefore no anxiety for her safety so long as the tide 

 lasted, but with the south running current there would 

 be no protection whatever. Accordingly, just before 

 low- water I was obliged to move the ship, and while 

 the ice remained stationary we succeeded in forcing 

 our way into the pack for a distance of a quarter of a 

 mile from the shore ; there the ship was secured among 

 some fairly sized floes of light ice. 



It was naturally with much anxiety on my part 

 that I thus committed the ship to be drifted helplessly 

 with the pack, in the hope and belief that it would 

 convey us past Cape Union, and towards Lincoln Bay, 

 where we might expect the navigation to become less 

 difficult ; but very little choice was left me. 



Although hitherto we had been favoured by find- 

 ing notches in the ice-wall in which to secure the ship, 



