OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



287 



sage. To the latter therefore our hopes and expectations were now re-di- 1822 - 

 rected, if indeed it could be said that they had ever been placed elsewhere ; 

 and I determined to avoid, if possible, the entanglement of the Fury among 

 the ice which now surrounded her on every side, and to stand back to 

 Igloolik to hear what information Captain Lyon's journey might have pro- 

 cured for us. Before we could get into tolerably clear water, however, we 

 had to run several miles to the southward, and then hoping to sail without 

 farther incumbrance shaped a direct course for Igloolik. 



The wind proved light and variable during the night, with continued fog ; Wed. 31. 

 so that on the morning of the 31st, when we were wholly ignorant in what 

 direction the tides had been taking us, we suddenly found ourselves sur- 

 rounded by a great body of heavy ice, which seemed to have been brought 

 about us almost by the effect of magic, for the ship had long ceased to move 

 through the water, though, by the rapid change of soundings, quickly altering 

 her position over the ground. In a few minutes there was barely room for 

 turning the ship round, and we therefore made her fast to a heavy floe, a 

 mile or two in circumference, when the fog, partially clearing away for a 

 short time, discovered to us Tangle Island four or five miles to the westward, 

 and the open sea one mile to the southward, or directly to windward of us. 

 At half-past eight A.M. the ice slackening round the floe, we furled sails and 

 began to warp towards the open water. While thus employed we continued 

 to drift nearer and nearer to the island, and at the same time to drive be- 

 tween this and the next one to the eastward, decreasing the soundings 

 regularly from twenty-five to thirteen fathoms in the course of the day. We 

 continued our work till eight P.M. when, after eleven hours of incessant 

 exertion and the most inclement weather, and just as we had got within a 

 hundred yards of the clear water, a body of loose ice came drifting down with 

 the tide and enclosed us more effectually than at first. The wind was now 

 increasing to a gale from the south-east, and the ship beginning to drive 

 faster between the islands ; but having made every thing as snug as circum- 

 stances would permit, and prepared to unship the rudder in case of her tak- 

 ing the ground, we could do nothing but quietly await the result. The night, 

 however, though a most inclement and anxious one, afforded our people all 

 the rest they so much required ; for by a providential concurrence of circum- 

 stances, we had been brought into our present dilemma on the only side of 

 Tangle Island which is not shoal and dangerous, and the ice becoming 



