OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
77 
sufficiently close, to be assured that no passage to the westward could at 
present be effected, the floes being literally upon the beach, and not a drop 
of clear water being visible beyond them. I then ordered the ships to be 
made fast to a floe, being in eighty fathoms’ water, at the distance of four or 
five miles from the beach. The season had now so far advanced, as to make 
it absolutely necessary to secure the ships every night from ten till two 
o’clock, the weather being too dark during that interval to allow of our 
keeping under- way in such a navigation as this, deprived as we were of 
the use of the compasses. But, however anxious the hours of darkness must 
necessarily be under such circumstances, the experience of the former voyage 
had given us every reason to believe, that the month of September would 
prove the most valuable period of the year for prosecuting our discoveries in 
these regions, on account of the sea being more clear from ice at this time 
than at any other. Feeling, therefore, as I did, a strong conviction, that the 
ultimate accomplishment of our object must depend, in a great measure, on 
the further progress we should make this season, I determined to extend our 
operations to the latest possible period. 
The wind having been fresh from the north-east during the night, we were 
this morning enclosed for a time by a quantity of loose ice drifting down upon 
us. No change could be perceived in the state of the ice to the westward till 
one P.M., when it appeared to be moving a little off the point. We 
therefore warped the ships out, and made sail with a light but favourable 
breeze. At eight P.M., however, having arrived at the point, and finding no 
passage open, we made the ships fast in a large bay in a floe, in sixty-five 
fathoms, at the distance of a mile and a half from the shore. I sent 
Lieutenant Beechey on shore to look round from the hills for open 
water to the westward, as well as to sound round some heavy masses of ice 
which were aground in-shore, and within which it would perhaps become 
expedient to secure the ships in case of necessity. He reported on his 
return, at ten P.M., that no clear water whatever could be seen along 
the land, the ice being compact, and close in to the shore, as far as a bold 
headland which now formed the western extreme of the island, and which 
was from four to five leagues distant from us. The ice aground in-shore 
was very close to the beach, which was steep-to, as our soundings in the offing 
indicated. Lieutenant Beechey found, however, a depth of from twelve to 
four fathoms within many of the masses ; but as there was little or no 
room to swing within them, I preferred keeping the ships in their present 
1819. 
Sept. 
Tues. 7. 
