OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
247 
proach of the large block of ice which I have described as having been raised 1820. 
up on the 9th, and which, having been frequently drifted backwards and 
forwards past the ship since that time, had once more stationed itself rather 
nearer to us than we could have wished. I may here remark that this mass, 
of which we knew the dimensions by actual measurement, served, when 
driving among the heavy floes in the offing, as a standard of comparison, by 
which the height of the latter above the sea, and thence their whole bulk, 
could be estimated with tolerable accuracy ; and it was principally in this 
manner that a judgment was formed of those enormous fields with which this 
part of the sea was incumbered. There was a very light air from the south- 
ward and eastward for the greater part of the evening, and a fog came on as 
the atmosphere cooled at night. 
Soon after midnight the ice pressed closer in upon the Hecla than before, Mon. 14. 
giving her a heel of eighteen inches towards the shore, but without appearing 
to strain her in the slightest degree. Most .of the boats had been lowered 
down, and securely moored upon the beach, to prevent their being damaged, 
should the ship be forced upon her broadside, and the rest were now placed 
in a similar situation. By four P.M., the pressure had gradually decreased, 
and the ship had only three or four inches heel ; in an hour after she had 
perfectly righted, and the ice remained quiet for the rest of the day. A 
light easterly wind, with small snow at times, continued till six A.M., when 
it died away, and was soon after succeeded by a gentle air from the westward. 
Mr. Fisher tried an experiment on the specific gravity of a piece of fioe- 
ice taken up from alongside the ship, by which it appeared to be heavier 
than that we had hitherto weighed in the same manner. Being formed into 
a cube, whose sides measured one foot two inches and seven-tenths, and 
placed to float in the sea, only one inch and eight-tenths of it remained 
above the surface. The temperature of the sea-water at the time, was 34°, 
and its specific gravity 1,0105. 
The weather became foggy, with small rain in the afternoon ; before the 
fog came on, however, Mr. Ross observed from the hill that the same un- 
varied surface of impenetrable ice, as before, presented itself in every direc- 
tion ; and a note from Lieutenant Liddon acquainted me that no alteration 
had lately taken place in the neighbourhood of the Griper. 
Every moment’s additional detention now served to confirm me in the 
opinion I had formed, as to the expediency of trying, at all risks, to pene- 
trate to the southward, whenever the ice would allow us to move at all. 
