V 
RENDEZVOUS. 179 
are waiting to be skinned are absolutely rigid with 
frost." 
In the afternoon of this day, the 8th, we went to 
work, all hands, officers included, to cut up the young 
ice and tow it out into the current : once there, the drift 
carried it rapidly to the south. We cleared away in 
this manner a space of some forty yards square, and at 
five the next morning were rewarded by being again 
under weigh. We were past Cape Hotham by break- 
fast-time on the 9th, and in the afternoon were beat- 
ing to the west in Lancaster Sound. 
" The sound presented a novel spectacle to us ; the 
young ice glazing it over, so as to form a viscid sea of 
sludge and ticldy -benders, from the northern shore to 
the pack, a distance of at least ten miles. This was 
mingled with the drift floes from Wellington Chan- 
nel ; and in them, steaming away manfully, were the 
Resolute and Pioneer. The wind was dead ahead ; 
yet, but for the new ice, there was a clear sea to the 
west. What, then, was our mortification, first, to see 
our pack-bound neighbors force themselves from their 
prison and steam ahead dead in the wind's eye, and, 
next, to be overhauled by Penny, and passed by both 
his brigs. We are now the last of all the searchers, 
except perhaps old Sir John, who is probably yet in 
Union Bay, or at least east of the straits. 
" The shores along which we are passing are of the 
same configuration with the coast to the east of Beechy 
Island ; the cliff's, however, are not so high, and their 
bluff" appearance is relieved occasionally by terraces 
and shingle beach. The lithological characters of the 
limestone appear to be the same. 
" We are all together here, on a single track but lit- 
tle wider than the Delaware or Hudson. There is no 
