OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
95 
five miles of Cape Hearne, where the bay-ice, in unbroken sheets of about 1819. 
one-third of an inch in thickness, began to offer considerable impediment to 
our progress. We were abreast of the point at noon, and here our prospect 
was rather discouraging ; the anchorage in the bay was quite free from any 
obstruction, but a space of three or four miles to the north-eastward of Cape 
Hearne, was completely covered with bay-ice, which made it more than pro- 
bable that we should altogether be excluded from the roadstead. We entered 
this ice under a press of sail, the wind blowing strong from the northward, 
and found it to consist principally of that kind which, from its appearance, 
is technically called “ pancake-ice,” and which, though it considerably re- 
tarded our progress in beating to windward, did not offer so serious an im- 
pediment as we had expected. At half-past two P.M., in swinging the 
main-topsail-yard in stays, it was unfortunately carried away in the slings, 
but this accident was quickly repaired by the zealous exertions of the 
officers and men. As I saw that the Griper, which had dropped several 
miles astern in the course of the day, could not possibly reach the anchorage 
before dark, and being apprehensive that by a too anxious endeavour to 
effect that object, she might become frozen up at sea during the night, I 
made Lieutenant Liddon’s signal to secure his ship to the grounded ice off 
Cape Hearne, which he accordingly did. Soon after the sun had set, I had 
reason to entertain the same apprehension for the Hecla ; for the young ice 
began, as usual, to form upon the surface of the water, and in an hour’s 
time offered so considerable a resistance to the ship’s motion, though under a 
press of canvass, and with a fresh breeze, as to make it doubtful for some 
time whether we should reach the anchorage. We at length, however, 
struck soundings with twenty-nine fathoms of line, and at eight P.M. anchored 
in nine fathoms, on a muddy bottom, a little to the eastward of our situation 
on the 5th. 
The wind continued northerly, with a heavy fall of snow during the night. Thur.23. 
At half-past six A.M. on the 23d, there being fortunately so little bay-ice 
that a boat could easily pull through it, I left the ship, accompanied by 
Mr. Nias, to examine Fife’s harbour, which had been reported to me as 
affording good shelter, but having a bar across its entrance. I directed 
Lieutenant Beechey at the same time to get the Hecla under way, and to 
anchor wherever I should lay down a buoy for that purpose. My mortification 
may well be imagined at finding, on my arrival off Fife’s harbour, that it was 
covered with one solid sheet of ice from six to twelve inches in thickness, 
