120 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



October " n *PP e( * " a ^ out ^eir water-line, and of being drifted out of the bay by north- 

 w erly gales. That which was, however, perhaps the most to be apprehended 

 was the possibility of the ships being forced into shoal water, without de- 

 taching themselves from the mass of ice cemented to their bends, the weight 

 of which, hanging upon the sides of a ship left aground by the tide, could not 

 but produce very serious injury. 



Such were the principal contingencies to which we were liable, and which, 

 though we happily escaped them all, rendered our present situation an ex- 

 periment I would willingly have dispensed with trying. As a measure of 

 precaution we began by removing the ships into rather deeper water, by 

 cutting the ice astern, so that they now lay in full six fathoms at low water. 

 Several hawsers were also secured to the grounded masses ahead of the 

 ships, and the chain-cables kept bent till some idea could be formed of the 

 dependence to be placed on the ice, under the various circumstances of wind 

 and tide that might occur. The disposition of the masts, yards, and sails 

 was next determined on. The fore and main-top masts were kept fidded, 

 the top-gallant-masts (except the Fury's main one, which was kept up for the 

 electrometer-chain,) were struck, the lower yards got down to the housing, 

 the topsail-yards, gaff, jib-boom, and spritsail-yard remaining in their proper 

 places. The topsails and courses were kept bent to the yards, the sheets 

 being unrove, and the clues tucked in. The rest of the bending-sails were 

 stowed on deck to prevent their thawing during the winter ; and the spare 

 spars were lashed over the ships' sides, to leave a clear space for taking ex- 

 ercise in bad weather. 



In these arrangements I had kept in view a determination to send nothing 

 out of the ships during the winter, as well to avoid the possibility of loss by 

 robbery should any natives visit us, as to prevent a great deal of unnecessary 

 wear and tear, incurred, on a former occasion, in the removal of stores to and 

 from the shore. With the same view, it was my first intention to keep all the 

 boats hanging at the davits, but the carpenter of the Fury having represented 

 their liability to injury by frost, if not protected by a covering of snow, I then 

 proposed placing them on the ice near the ships. This plan however I was 

 also induced subsequently to relinquish, from our ignorance of the effect 

 likely to be produced upon the ice by the winter's tides, and we therefore 

 hauled them on shore and, placing their gear in them, covered them with snow. 



About the time of our arrival in the bay, when the thermometer had fallen 

 nearly to zero> the condensation of vapour upon the beams of the lower deck, 



