366 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



October U P on tlie beams of tne lower deck ; but directions being given for com^ 

 ^r^j mencing our winter system of ventilation, dryness was restored in less than 



three hours after the lighting of the main-hatchway stove. 

 Tues. 8. The wind changing to the south-east on the 8th, and soon increasing to a 

 fresh breeze which shortly raised the thermometer to +25° the ice was once 

 more set in motion, breaking in all directions, and one sheet doubling under 

 another wherever a separation had been effected. The wind increasing 

 and with it the pressure also, the ships were turned round with their sterns 

 towards the north-west shore of the bay, upon which, but for the anchors, 

 we must have been immediately driven. Even these however could not 

 long sustain the ships against the ice, which from being at first only an inch 

 or two in thickness became in a few hours more than as many feet, by the 

 long-continued process of one sheet overlaying the other. The Fury soon 

 drove past the Hecla, the latter happening to rest against a stouter part of 

 the ice, which for some time held her to windward. The breeze still in- 

 creasing, the lower yards and top-gallant-masts were struck, and the rudders 

 kept ready for unshipping, if it should be found necessary : we lay however 

 tolerably quiet, driving but a little in the course of the night. Notwithstand- 

 ing the constant motion and dangerous state of the ice during the day, several 

 of the Esquimaux walked fearlessly, though cautiously, off to the ships. Their 

 method is to go in a line a-head, or by single files, the leader and perhaps one 

 or two of the others carrying a spear, with which they constantly try the ice 

 before them, keeping their legs as far asunder as possible so as to bear upon 

 a large surface, and carefully avoiding the parts that look black. In this 

 manner, during this and the succeeding day, when I would not on any con- 

 sideration have ventured a man of ours in a similar situation, did these 

 people continue to visit us, some women and even children being among the 

 number. 



Wed 9. On the morning of the 9th, the wind began to freshen to a gale, by which 

 the ice was again set in motion, and the squeezing and doubling re-com- 

 menced ,with fresh violence. In the afternoon the Fury drove rapidly to 

 the westward but, occasionally holding on, allowed a great deal of ice 

 to go past her and interpose itself between the ship and the land. As 

 soon as this had taken place, and the ships were thus secured from the 

 danger of driving on the beach, we should have been glad to purchase our 

 anchors, which then became the objects of our greatest solicitude. The 

 Fury was so closely and constantly hemmed in that, with her, this was 



