OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE . 



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impracticable ; but an opportunity unexpectedly offering for the Hecla to do 1822 - 

 so, Captain Lyon instantly took advantage of it ; when, to our inexpressible ' 

 mortification, her anchor was found to have lost both the flukes. There was 

 scarcely any loss which we could not better have afforded ; and I had every 

 reason to apprehend that the Fury would incur a similar one ; for the gale 

 still increasing, her anchor was dragged over the ground nearly a mile with- 

 out stopping, and at times continued to be so during the night, which proved 

 a most tempestuous and inclement one. 



In the course of the evening, while the ice was driving past the Fury 

 and fresh separations were almost every moment taking place in it, a little 

 Esquimaux boy, named Aglooka, about ten years of age, a son of o in- 

 patient at the point, found his way along-side, and was very quietly stepping 

 from one piece of ice to another in order to keep his ground abreast our 

 gangway. Observing him in this situation, we threw him the bight of a 

 rope into which he put himself, and was hauled on board. With this indul- 

 gence he was pleased, not from the idea of having escaped any danger, for 

 he had certainly never felt apprehension, but because he might see the 

 ship and pick up something from the Kabloonas. 



Towards daylight on the 10th, the ice ceased moving, a great quantity Thur. 10. 

 being now packed between the ships and the land. The Hecla had been 

 driven to the westward of the Fury, but both were secure from going on 

 shore, and our anchor was now once more the sole cause of apprehension. 

 On its moderating and clearing up in the course of the forenoon, we found 

 that we had drifted more than a mile and a half from the point of Oonga- 

 looyat, the station originally selected for the winter-quarters of the ships, 

 being now nearer to the western point of the bay. We could, however, do 

 nothing but wait in patience to see if any further change would take place 

 in the state of the ice and, whenever it appeared to be permanently fixed, 

 commence the operation, which would now be no easy one, of cutting back 

 to the point. In the mean time the ice not being likely to move without 

 some alteration in the wind, we took the opportunity afforded by the Esqui- 

 maux sledges, of which several came down to the ships, to obtain some 

 water from the shore, our stock being nearly expended and the snow not 

 yet sufficiently deep for collecting it to thaw. Mr. Crawford and one of our 

 men, therefore, accompanied the Esquimaux with a sledge loaded with small 

 casks, which they soon filled with water, though at the expense of falling 



