OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
243 
ships to make any progress with a beating wind ; but, in the event of failing 1820. 
to do so, that I should next try what could be done by attempting a passage 
considerably to the southward of our present parallel. 
At seven P.M., we shipped the rudder, and crossed the top-gallant yards, 
in readiness for moving ; and I then again ascended the hill, and walked a 
mile to the westward, along the brow of it, that not a moment might be lost, 
after the ice to the westward should give us the slightest hope of making any 
progress by getting under-way. Although the holes had certainly increased 
in size and extent, there was still not sufficient room even for one of our 
boats to have worked to windward ; and the impossibility of the ships’ doing so 
was rendered more apparent, on account of the current which, as I have before 
had occasion to remark, is always produced in these seas, soon after the 
springing up of a breeze, and which was now running to the eastward, at 
the rate of at least one mile per hour. It was evident, that any attempt to 
get the ships to the westward must, under circumstances so unfavourable, be 
attended with the certain consequence of their being drifted the contrary 
way ; and nothing could, therefore, be done but still to watch, which we did 
most anxiously, every alteration in the state of the ice. The wind, how- 
ever, decreasing as the night came on, served to diminish the hopes with 
which we had flattered ourselves of being speedily extricated from our 
present confined and dangerous situation. At half-past ten P.M., Lieutenant 
Beechey, at my request, ascended the hill ; and, on his return at eleven 
o’clock, reported that, “ the ice was slack from W.b.N. to W.S.W., but that, 
without a leading wind, it did not appear that a ship could make any way 
among it.” 
At one A.M., on the 11th, I despatched Mr. Ross to the top of the hill, Frid.li. 
from whence he observed, that “ the ice had slackened considerably from 
W.b.S. to south, but was still too close for a ship to work among it.” At this 
time the wind was dying away gradually ; and, at four A.M., when Mr. Ross 
again ascended the hill, it had fallen quite calm. The ice immediately 
ceased to drift to the eastward, and at half-past five, a light breeze springing 
up from the south-east, caused it at once to return in the opposite direction. 
Being desirous, if possible, to take advantage of this breeze. Lieutenant 
Beechey and myself again went on shore, in order to form a judgment 
whether there was room for the ships to sail among the ice, should it appear 
otherwise expedient to get them under- way. We agreed that it was by no 
means practicable with the present light wind, which would scarcely have 
2 12 
