OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



9 



masses of ice alongside of them. In this situation they continued for seve- 

 ral hours so completely beset as to render it impossible to extricate them, vyw 

 and drifting about at random with the tides. The Hccla was, by a different 

 set of the stream, separated live or six miles from the Fury, while both 

 ships were equally hampered. 



The effects to be apprehended from exposure to the swell of the main 

 ocean constitute the peculiar danger of first entering the ice about the 

 mouth of Hudson's Strait, which is completely open to the influence of the 

 whole Atlantic. A very inconsiderable quantity of loose ice is sufficient to 

 shelter a ship from the sea, provided it be closely packed ; but when the 

 masses are separated by wind or tide, so as to admit the swell, the concus- 

 sions soon become too violent for a ship, strengthened in the ordinary way, 

 to withstand for any length of time. On this account, it is prudent not to 

 enter the ice without a fair prospect of getting seven or eight leagues within 

 the margin. For the same reason, also, when likely to be beset near the sea, 

 it is better to make a ship fast to small than to large pieces, in order to avoid 

 the heavier concussions occasioned by the latter. 



A thick fog prevailed during most of the day, with only occasional 

 intervals of clear weather. Soon after noon, we suddenly found ourselves 

 close to a large berg, of which there were many about us, and which are 

 dangerous neighbours in so rapid a tide-way. The ice near us being fortu- 

 nately slack at this time, a light air of wind, with the boats a-head, enabled 

 us to get clear of it. Those bergs which were not aground we observed to 

 drift to and fro with each tide, fully twice as fast and, consequently, twice 

 as far as the masses of field-ice ; which circumstance seems to shew that the 

 stream must extend very far below the surface, many of these immense 

 bodies being from fifty to ninety feet above the surface of the sea and 

 reaching, probably, almost as many fathoms below it. The bergs which thus 

 drive about are, however, less dangerous to approach than those aground, 

 against which a ship is liable to be carried with the whole force of the tide. 



The fog suddenly clearing away, at 6 P.M., we found ourselves close 

 under Resolution Island, though we could obtain no soundings with one 

 hundred and ten fathoms of line. In standing off we were soon again en- 

 veloped in fog and, being once more beset as soon as the flood-tide made, 

 were drifted about during the night, without knowing in what direction we 

 went. The weather again clearing up for a short time, on the evening of 

 the 7th, we found, to our great surprise, that the Hecla had drifted eleven Sat. 



