90 
VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 
It was impossible not to consider ourselves fortunate in having escaped the 
danger which had lately threatened the ships ; but another difficulty now pre- 
sented itself whicli we had not anticipated. This was occasioned by finding 
nearly the whole surface of that part of the sea, which at a distance had ap- 
peared to us open, covered with a coating of young ice of sufficient thickness 
to offer a considerable impediment to the ships, when sailing with a strong and 
favourable breeze. To give some idea of the degree of obstruction occa- 
sioned by this ice, whose thickness did not generally exceed half an inch, it 
may be sufficient to state, that with such a quantity of sail as would certainly 
have propelled the Ilecla six miles and a half an hour, if unimpeded in this 
way, she did not average more than four miles. This remark must be under- 
stood to apply to ice of this kind, when of a single thickness, and in the 
state in which it is naturally formed upon the surface. But, whenever, by 
any pressure on either side, the sheet is broken, and the edges of one part 
forced under those of another, causing them to overlay each other, the whole 
thickness of the ice is of course augmented, and the impediment to a ship 
becomes greater in proportion to the frequency with which this occurs. 
Where this has taken place, the ice, being too thick to allow the water to be 
seen through it, is distinguished by the whiteness of its appearance ; the 
white ice, therefore, is to be avoided in sailing, as much as possible. 
It was my intention, as usual with us of late, to sail along the shore till 
we came to any land-ice calculated to afford shelter to the ships during the 
night. As we ran along, however, it was soon perceived that the main body 
of the ice was very rapidly approaching the shore, at the same time that the 
westerly current was still carrying in that direction ; the ships were imme- 
diately hauled in-shore, to find the best security against it which circum- 
stances would admit, but the bay-ice had in this place become so thickened 
by the continued pressure of the floes upon it from without, that the ships 
were shortly arrested in their progress, being about one mile distant from the 
land. Every expedient to break the ice, usual in such cases, was resorted 
to, without our being able to move the ships a single foot a-head. The floe 
continued rapidly closing on the shore, forcing the ships in before it, and bring- 
ing with it so much of the bay-ice, that it was needless any longer to 
employ the people in attempting to break it: to anchor seemed now the 
only mode we had left to avoid being driven on shore, or, what was much 
more to be apprehended, being forced by the floes against the heavy ice 
on the beach. We waited, therefore, till at seven P.M. we had shoaled 
