458 



ARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION. 



the momentous character of that pack. On getting through my 

 description, telling him that I not only took repeated careful looks 

 of it through his glass, but had required Shevikoo to do the same, 



Captain B , with fevered brow, responded, ' Our fate is sealed! 



Another winter here ! We are already imprisoned! 1 



" This was now the theme, the all-important subject of thought 



of every one who heard Captain B 's explanation of how it 



was that all hope of returning to the States this season was now 

 cut off. Captain B no longer felt able to rejoice at the cap- 

 ture of another whale. To and fro he paced the cabin — now on 

 deck — another moment back again. 



11 At eight o'clock the four boats came in announcing the fact 

 that another whale had been secured. At any other time this in- 

 telligence would have been received by Captain B with a 



joyful heart, but now he was occupied in thinking what he was 

 to do under the present dismal circumstances. When the boats 

 came in and were placed in position on their cranes, the captain 

 broke to the officers the subject that now before all others press- 

 ed upon him. During the evening he proceeded to state that, 

 from various circumstances during the year, he had been think- 

 ing there might be something of the kind, to wit, pack-ice, com- 

 ing down Davis's Strait. He said, ' Last winter hung on late ; 

 there has been no summer ; the year has been an unusually cold 

 one ; the water of the bay has been almost of sea-ice temperature, 

 while now the first cold snap turns it at once to porridge, and 

 then into solid ice. All these results are from the heavy pack 

 that has probably been coming down Davis's Strait nearly all the 

 season.' 



" Captain B said, farther, that to take the pack at this sea- 

 son of the year would be the very height of foolhardiness. In 

 the spring the whalers do not hesitate to do it, for then constant 

 daylight and warm, thawing weather are expected. But now 

 every thing is freezing up. Long, dark nights are upon us, and 

 the George Henry is not such a vessel that one should think of 



venturing with her into dangerous places. Captain B is 



thankful that I made the trip I have to-day. He says, 1 What 

 would have been our condition had you not seen and reported 

 this ? As soon as possible I should have been on our way ; I 

 should have weighed anchors and raised sail at the first far wind. 

 But in what kind of a situation should we soon have found our- 

 selves ? In the pack, without the power to retreat P 



