86 
VOYAGE FOE THE DISCOVERY 
1819. placed in tolerable security during six or seven hours of darkness. We found 
here twenty-three fathoms at three hundred yards from the shore, and had 
fifteen under our stern, at the distance of one hundred and fifty yards. As it 
was nearly dark before the Griper arrived, when it is difficult to secure a 
ship to the ice. Lieutenant Liddon found it necessary to run into four fathoms, 
at one hundred yards from the beach, and there to drop his bower anchor. At 
half-past ten P.M., a large mass of ice, which had been aground near us, was 
set afloat by the swell and drifted off shore. A strong westerly current, 
which was still running to windward, set this ice across our stern, and 
occasioned the ship to strike violently several times upon a “ tongue” pro- 
jecting from it under water: the shocks exactly resembled those of a ship 
striking the ground, and the rudder was forcibly lifted two or three times, 
but fortunately without receiving any damage. I afterwards learned from 
Lieutenant Liddon, that a great quantity of the land-ice had been drifting off 
in large pieces during the night near the spot where the Griper had anchored^ 
keeping her crew employed for several hours in veering and heaving in cable, 
in order to avoid it. 
Frid. 17. At nine A.M. on the 17th, the wind being more moderate and the 
weather fine, we cast off and ran along the land; but had not proceeded 
far when it was perceived that the ice, in very heavy and compact floes of 
more than usual dimensions, still extended close into the shore near Gape 
Hay. We observed, at noon, in latitude 74° 22' 15", our longitude, by 
account, being 112° 51'; and, in the afternoon, stood close in to the high 
land, which here gives the island a new character, and tacked in forty-three 
fathoms, at the distance of five hundred yards from the shore. Further out we 
obtained no soundings ; indeed I deemed it so essential to make the most of 
the day-light in examining the state of the ice to the westward, that I did not 
choose to heave-to for that purpose ; but the appearance of the land, and the 
soundings found in-shore, indicate a considerable depth of water on this part 
of the coast. 
The current which, for the last two days, had been setting to the westward, 
and which could not possibly have escaped our observation, had it existed 
previous to the late westerly and north-westerly gales, was here found to be 
running even stronger than we had before remarked it. This was made parti- 
^cularly obvious when, having reached the farthest point westward, to which we 
could prudently venture to carry the ships, we were obliged to heave-to, 
in order to watch for any opening that might favour our views. The ships 
