OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
Ill 
of the ice might not create such a pressure upon the water-line of the 1819 , 
ships as to do them some damage. This apprehension was rather increased 
by Lieutenant Liddon’s having reported to me, that his officers had, a 
night or two before, heard a loud crack about the Griper’s bends, which 
gave them the idea of something straining or giving way. This noise, 
however, which occurred very frequently afterwards, as the cold became 
more intense, proved to be nothing more than that which is not unusually 
heard in houses in cold countries, being occasioned by the freezing and 
expansion of the juices contained in wood not thoroughly seasoned. To 
put the matter out of all doubt, however, I deemed it prudent to order the 
ice to be cut round both ships, an operation which occupied the two crews 
almost the whole of two days, the ice being now twenty-three inches in 
thickness ; and I determined to continue this operation daily, as long as the 
weather would permit. 
The 20th of October was one of the finest days which, as experience has Wed. 20. 
since taught us, ever occur in this climate, the weather being clear, with little 
or no wind; and, though the thermometer remained steadily between — 15° 
and — 16° during the day, it was rather pleasant to our feelings than otherwise. 
Our sportsmen were out from both ships the whole day, and returned, for 
the first time, without having seen any living animal, though they had 
walked over a very considerable extent of ground; so that the hope we had 
indulged of obtaining, occasionally, a fresh meal, was now nearly at an end 
for the rest of the winter. It was observed from the hills, that the ice in 
the offing had been thrown into higher hummocks than before ; and in the 
morning we saw a number of little vertical streams of vapour rising from 
the sea, near the mouth of the harbour, which was probably that pheno- 
menon vulgarly called the “ barber,” in North America, and which is oc- 
casioned, I believe, by the vapour arising from the water being condensed 
into a visible form by the coldness of the atmosphere. It is probable, 
therefore, from the two circumstances now mentioned, that a motion had 
taken place among the floes in the offing, producing first the pressure by 
which the hummocks were thrown up, and then a partial separation leaving, 
for a time, a small space of unfrozen surface. 
Between six and eight P.M., we observed the Aurora Borealis, forming a 
broad arch of irregular white light, extending from N.N.W. to S.S.E., the 
centre of the arch being 10° to the eastward of the zenith. It was most 
bright near the southern horizon ; and frequent, but not vivid, coruscations 
i 
