OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



369 



intention hastily to infer that our losses in this way were to be attributed to 

 the unyielding nature, or any other supposed bad quality of the chain-cables, 

 (though this was the opinion expressed by our most experienced seamen at 

 the time,) for a few insulated facts are of themselves of very little import- 

 ance. But it is only by the collection of such facts under the various circum- 

 stances of trial which may occur to seamen, that the comparative merits of 

 the two kinds of cables can ultimately be determined. 



The wind was easterly with a mild atmosphere till the night of the 15th, Tues. 15. 

 when the thermometer began to fall immediately on the springing up of a 

 north-west breeze. Some remarkable alterations took place however this 

 evening, according to the clearness of the atmosphere or the contrary. Be- 

 tween four and five o'clock the weather becoming clear overhead, the tempera- 

 ture fell to 12|° ; at thirty minutes after five a partial haze came on, when 

 the thermometer immediately rose to 15j° ; and this soon after disappearing, 

 the thermometer again fell to 13°, the wind continuing at N.W. the whole 

 time. The breeze gradually increased in the course of the night, and on 

 the following day blew a gale for some hours, with considerable snow-drift. Wed. 16. 

 As soon as it moderated we felt assured that the ice was now permanently 

 fixed for the winter, and arrangements were therefore made for commencing 

 our sawing operations the next morning. Such however was the laborious 

 nature of this task, in consequence of the repeated doubling and squeezing 

 of the ice, that after nine hours' hard work for both crews on the 17th, we Thur. 17. 

 could only succeed in getting in five and twenty fathoms of the Hecla's chain- 

 cable before dark. It is scarcely possible indeed to describe the teasing na- 

 ture of ice in this state, and the impossibility of cutting a passage through it 

 in any reasonable time. So many strata had overlaid each other that the 

 whole thickness in some places exceeded seven feet, which in others was in- 

 creased still further by masses squeezed up and lying over-end. Ice even of 

 this thickness, if it were only solid, would afford by its continuity some 

 means of pulling it out ; but in the present instance, after the saws had de- 

 tached it, each separate layer was to be fished out by hooks and ropes, and 

 as soon as one was removed another rose to the surface, leaving after all so 

 much " sludge" or small powdered ice, as immediately to produce a fresh 

 formation on the surface. On the 18th however the Hecla's anchor was gotFrid. 18, 

 to the bows, and happily without injury to it ; our next object was to get 

 that ship close to the Fury, and then to commence a canal for both to warp in 

 to the eastward, 



3 B 



