250 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



ju?y ' of the last water's formation. The outer band of ice was of the " hum- 

 y^r^ mocky" kind, which I have shewn to be produced by external pressure, or 

 by the cementing together of a number of broken masses left in the autumn 

 by the succeeding winter's frost. The ice in the offing was also of the latter 

 kind and drifting rapidly about with the tides, leaving us a navigable 

 channel varying in width from two miles to three or four hundred yards. 



Having passed Adderley's Bluff, which is much the highest land hereabouts, 

 we soon found the ice closing in to the land-floe, and therefore made the 

 ships fast to the latter, after a fine run of ten leagues without any obstruc- 

 tion. The soundings here were extraordinary, considering the bold appear- 

 ance of the land ; for at the distance of two miles from it we had only eleven 

 fathoms, on a bottom of small stones and shells ; and by the boats we found 

 from ten to twenty-two fathoms along the edge of the floe. On their return 

 we were again able to get under way, and after gaining another mile or two 

 made fast as before. Soon after the sea-ice came in upon us, but with so 

 little force or at least in so many broken pieces as to do the ships no injury, 

 though it appeared to be approaching in a very threatening manner. This 

 motion in the ice was occasioned by the making of the flood-tide, which here 

 as at Winter Island we found to come from the northward. 

 Wed. 3. The ice remained close till half-past four A.M. on the 3d, when, after hav- 

 ing sent a boat to sound, we cast off and ran along the margin of the floe. 

 In an hour and a half we were obliged again to make fast, to allow a stream 

 of ice to drift past us with the tide, after which we once more pushed forward 

 for a short time. Between Cape Wilson and Point Elizabeth the land forms 

 a considerable indentation, and is here moderately high. In the course of 

 the forenoon, as we ran along, a man was observed standing on a hummock 

 of ice in-shore of us. As we concluded it to be one of our friends on their 

 way from Winter Island, we hoisted our colours but could not afford to 

 heave-to. At noon we were in latitude, by observation, 66° 50' 40", and lon- 

 gitude, by chronometers, 81° 51' 12". 



The closeness of the ice again obliging us to make fast, we soon after 

 perceived a party of people with a sledge upon the land-floe in the same 

 direction as before. I therefore sent Mr. Bushnan with some of our men 

 to meet them and to bring them on board, being desirous of ascertaining 

 whereabouts according to their geography we now were. We found the 

 party to consist, as we expected, of those who had taken leave of us forty 

 days before, on their departure to the northward, and who now readily 



