248 SECOND JOURNEY TO THE 



ice-cold water while launching the boats, 

 not only when we accidentally run on shore, 

 but every time that it was requisite to em- 

 bark or to land upon this shallow coast. 

 Nor were these symptoms to be overlooked 

 in coming to a determination ; for though 

 no one who knows the resolute disposition 

 of British sailors can be surprised at their 

 more than readiness to proceed, I felt that 

 it was my business to judge of their capa- 

 bility of so doing, and not to allow myself 

 to be seduced by their ardour, however 

 honourable to them and cheering to me." 



It was fortunate he came to this resolu- 

 tion. Captain Beechey, who proceeded 

 one hundred and twenty miles beyond Icy 

 Cape, arrived on the 24th of August at a 

 low sandy spot, extending so far to the 

 northward, as to make it impossible to pro- 

 ceed round it ; and the weather was so 

 tempestuous, that it was with the utmost 

 difficulty that officer's barge got back to 

 Kotzebue Sound, to rejoin the Blossom. 



" Could I have known, (says Franklin,) 

 or by possibility imagined, that a party from 



