Nov. 1858. NARROW ESCAPE. 209 



were dispelled by their arrival in good health, 

 but they evidently have suffered from cold and 

 exposure during their absence of nineteen days. 

 For the first six days they journeyed outward 

 successfully ; on that night they encamped upon 

 the ice ; it was at spring-tide, a N.E. gale 

 sprang up and blowing off shore, detached the 

 ice and drifted them off! The sea froze over 

 on the cessation of the gale, and two days after- 

 wards they fortunately regained the land near 

 the position from which they were blown off ; 

 they have indeed experienced much unusual 

 danger and suffering from cold. 



As soon as they discovered that the ice was 

 drifting off shore with them, they packed their 

 sledges, harnessed the dogs, and passed the 

 night in anxious watching for some chance to 

 escape. When the ice got a little distance off 

 shore, it broke up under the influence of the 

 wind and sea, until the piece they were upon 

 was scarce 20 yards in diameter : this drifted 

 across the mouth of a wide inlet * until brought 

 up against the opposite shore. The gale was 

 quickly followed by an intense frost, which in a 



* Named after Lord Wrottesley, in remembrance of the support 

 given by him to the expedition, his advocacy of it in the House of 

 Lords, and of the facilities granted me by the Royal Society — of 

 which he was President — for the pursuit of scientific observations. 



