352 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



Sept wnose partial separation had lately excited our hopes, it seemed scarcely 

 reasonable any longer to entertain an expectation of such a change as could 

 essentially promote our ultimate object. Had we, indeed, succeeded in 

 getting fairly through the Strait, and then found no more than the ordinary 

 obstacles of these seas to contend with, I could not have had a moment's 

 hesitation in continuing to push on to the last hour of the navigable season ; 

 taking our chance, as usual, of then finding a place of security for our win- 

 ter-quarters. But the prospect now before us offering no such encourage- 

 ment, it appeared more prudent to regulate our proceedings according to 

 existing circumstances, and rather to moderate our views for the present, 

 than by an ill-timed perseverance to interfere with our hopes for the future. 



It would undoubtedly have been interesting at this period of the voyage, to 

 have known whether the unfavourable state of the ice during the late sum- 

 mer was merely the result of an unusually bad season, or the effect of some 

 more permanent and local cause, rendering the navigation of this passage 

 equally impracticable in the general average of years. Without however at 

 present entering into that question, which it would require the experience of 

 several seasons to determine, and to which I shall have some future occasion 

 to revert, it is now only necessary to remark that in whatsoever state the ice 

 might here be found in the ensuing summer, there appeared no reason for 

 supposing our object would be furthered by wintering in the middle of the 

 Strait ; because its eastern entrance being certainly the first to be cleared, it 

 would be an easy matter to regain our present advanced position in a few 

 hours after that clearance should take place. On the other hand, supposing 

 the ice to remain unbroken till the same period next season, (and it was not 

 easy to get over the impression that what had happened one year would in all 

 probability happen the next,) our wintering in the Strait involved the cer- 

 tainty of being frozen up for eleven months, — a sickening prospect under 

 any circumstances, but in the present instance probably fatal to our best hopes 

 and expectations. 



With the conviction of these unpleasant truths reluctantly forced upon my 

 mind, I considered it my duty to assist my own judgment at this crisis by 

 calling for the opinions of the senior officers of the Expedition. With this 

 view therefore I addressed a letter to Captain Lyon and Lieutenants Hoppner 

 and Nias respectively, directing their attention to the principal circumstances 

 of our present situation, and requesting their advice as to the measures most 

 proper to be pursued for the successful prosecution of our enterprise. 



