282 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



July' considerable force to press them farther. The greatest difficulty we expe- 

 rienced in the management of them was to prevent " broaching to" when 

 going before the wind, the rower sitting so near the centre as to exert his 

 power to great disadvantage in turning their heads in any direction. Pad- 

 dling head to wind is by far the most easy and pleasant. Nothing is more 

 likely to overset a canoe than what we call " catching a crab" with the 

 paddle, which is therefore to be carefully avoided ; but I believe that any 

 seaman might, after a few months' practice, render himself as expert as the 

 Esquimaux in the management of these frail coracles, at least for every pur- 

 pose to which they are commonly applied. 



Shortly after I returned on board Captain Lyon made the signal to " com- 

 municate with me," for the purpose of offering his services to accompany our 

 fisherman on his proposed journey, attended by one of the Hecla's men ; to 

 which, in the present unfavourable state of the ice, I gladly consented, as 

 the most likely means of procuring information of interest during this our 

 unavoidable detention. I therefore gave Captain Lyon an order to this 

 effect, directing his attention to the acquirement of geographical and natural 

 knowledge ; and to prevent the possibility of occasioning detention to the 

 Expedition, limiting the time of his absence to the morning of the 30th. 

 Being equipped with a small tent, blankets, and four days' provision, Captain 

 Lyon left us at ten P.M., when I made sail to re-examine the margin of the ice. 

 Frid. 26. We had a great deal of rain and sleet on the 26th, which we regretted on 

 Captain Lyon's account, but considered favourable for the dissolution of the 

 ice. On reaching the margin of the floe a slight difference was perceptible 

 as to its extent sea- ward, which was to be attributed to its breaking off by 

 piece-meal, an operation that was continually though slowly going on, while 

 its general position and continuity from side to side of the strait remained 

 as before. The sea was still entirely free from drift or moving ice as far as 

 we could distinguish from the mast-head in clear weather ; and we now began 

 to remark that, whenever a mass was separated from the fixed floe, it drifted 

 away to the south-east and never returned. The consequence was that this 

 portion of the sea was at all times unincumbered, and more constantly and 

 completely navigable than any part of the polar regions in this latitude we 

 had ever visited. Of the cause of this extraordinary fact we were as yet 

 entirely ignorant. 



In the afternoon, the wind continuing to the north-eastward with moist 

 and unpleasant weather, we stood towards Tern Island, and after sending a 



