76 
VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 
1819. shore at half-past nine, and it had risen between two and three feet when 
the boats came away at half-past twelve. During this time the ships were 
tending to a tide coming strong from the eastward ; from which direction it is 
therefore probable, that the flood-tide runs on this part of the coast, though 
we had no satisfactory opportunity of trying its true set in the offing. Near 
the point where the observations were made, a bottle was buried, containing 
a paper as usual, and a pile of stones raised over it. The weather was this 
day unusually cold to the feelings, to a greater degree even than might have 
been expected from the indication of the thermometer, which, for the first 
time, had been as low as 25°. 
The wind beginning to moderate soon after noon, and there being at length 
some appearance of motion in the ice near Cape Hearne, the boats were im- 
mediately recalled from the shore, and returned at two P.M., bringing some 
peat, which was found to burn tolerably, but a smaller quantity than I had 
hoped to procure, owing to a misunderstanding as to the distance at which 
it was to be found from the sea. At half-past two, as soon as the ship’s 
company had dined, we began to heave at the cable, but so excellent is the 
holding-ground, that it required all the purchase as well as strength we could 
apply, to start the anchor by half-past four. We then made sail for Cape 
Hearne, which we rounded at six o’clock, having no soundings with from 
seventeen to twenty fathoms of line, at the distance of a mile and a quarter 
from the point. The extreme of the land which now appeared to the west- 
ward bore about S.W.b.W., and there was a sufficient space of clear water 
along the shore to allow us to steer for it. It was impossible, however, not 
to remark to how short a distance from the shore, not exceeding three or four 
miles, the ice had been drifted by the late strong gales. We had observed, 
however, that in rounding Cape Hearne this evening, the wind had drawn 
gradually to the eastward as we proceeded, taking nearly the direction of 
the shore, and we were willing to hope that it had been blowing from the 
same quarter, while we were lying at anchor in the bay ; in which case it 
was not necessary to suppose any such serious obstruction to the southward 
as that to which we had at first been inclined to attribute these unfavourable 
appearances. 
I was beginning once more to indulge in those flattering hopes, of which 
often-repeated disappointments cannot altogether deprive us, when I per- 
ceived, from the crow’s nest, a compact body of ice, extending completely 
in to the shore near the point which formed the western extreme. We ran 
