498 
COMMANDER DE HAVEn’s 
The following day the wind hauled to the southward, from ■which quarter it 
lasted till the 19th. During this period the young ice was broken, its edges 
squeezed up into hummocks, and one floe overrun by another until it all as- 
sumed the appearance of heavy ice. 
The vessels received some hea\ 7 ‘ nips from it, but they withstood them with- 
out injury. Whenever a pool of water made its appearance, every effort was 
made to reach it, in hopes it w'ould lead us into Beechy Island, nr some other 
place where the vessel might be placed iu security ; for the winter set in un- 
usually early, and the severity with which it commenced forbade all hopes of 
our being able to return this season. I now became anxious to attain a point 
in the neighbor! lood from whence, by means of land parties, in the spring, a 
goodly extent of Wellington Channel might be examined. 
In the mean time, under the influence of the south wind, we were being set 
up the channel. On t.he 18th we were above Cape Bowden, the most northern 
point seen on this shore by Parry. 
The land on both shores was seen much further, and trended considerably to 
the west of north. To account for this drift, the fixed ice of Wellington Chan- 
nel, which wc had observed in passing to the •westward, must have been broken 
up and driven to the southward by the hea\ 7 ’ gale of the 12th. 
On the 19th the wind veered to the north, which gave us a southerly set, 
forcing us at the same time with the western shore. This did not last long, 
for the next day the wiml hauled again to the south, and blew fresh, bringing 
the icc in upon us with inueh pressure. At midnight it broke up all around us, 
so that we had work to maintain the Advance in a safe position, and keep her 
from being separated from her consort, which was immovably fixed in the 
centre of a large floe. 
We continued to drift slowly to the N.N.W. until the 22d, when our progress 
appeared to be arrested by a small low island, which was discovered in that di- 
rection, about seven miles distant. A channel of three or four miles in width 
separated it from Cornwallis Island. This latter island, trending northwest from 
our position, terminated abruptly in an edevated cape, to which I have given the 
name of Maiming, after a warm personal friend and ardent supporter of the ex- 
pedition. Between Cornwallis Island and some distant high land visible in the 
north, appeared a wide channel leading to the westward. A dark, misty-looking 
cloud which hung over it (technically termed frost smoke), was indicative of 
much open water in that direction. 
This was the direction to which ray instructions, referring to the investiga- 
tions at the National Observatory concerning the winds and currents of the 
ocean, directed me to look for oiieii water. 
Nor was the open water the only indication that presented itself in confirma- 
tion of this theoretical conjecture as to a milder climate in that direction. As 
we entered Wellington Channel, the signs of animal life became more abundant, 
and Captain Penny, commander of one of the English expeditions, who after- 
ward penetrated on sledges much toward the region of the frost smoke, much 
further than it was possible for us to do in our vessels, reported that he actually 
arrived on the borders of this open sea. 
Thus these admirably drawn instniclioiis, deriving arguments from the en- 
larged and comprehensive system of physical research, not only pointed with 
emphasis to an unknown open sea into which Franklin had probably found his 
