98 
VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 
1819. greater part of the night, a permanent brightness in the northern quarter of 
the heavens, which was probably occasioned by the Aurora Borealis. I di- 
rected half a pound of fresh meat per man to be issued, as an extra allowance ; 
and this was continued daily till the completion of our present undertaking. 
Sat. 25. All hands were again set to work on the morning of the 25th, when it was 
proposed to sink the pieces of ice, as they were cut, under the floe, instead of 
floating them out, the latter mode having now become impracticable on ac- 
count of the lower part of the canal, through which the ships had passed, 
being hard frozen during the night. To effect this, it was necessary for a 
certain number of men to stand upon one end of the piece of ice which it was 
intended to sink, while other parties, hauling at the same time upon ropes 
attached to the opposite end, dragged the block under that part of the floe 
on which the people stood. The officers of both ships took the lead in this 
employ, several of them standing up to their knees in water frequently during 
the day, with the thermometer generally at 12°, and never higher than 16°. At 
six P.M. we began to move the ships. The Griper was made fast astern of the 
Hecla, and the two ships’ companies being divided on each bank of the canal, 
with ropes from the Hecla’s gangways, soon drew the ships along to the end 
of our second day’s work. 
Sun. 26. I should, on every account, have been glad to make this a day of rest to the 
officers and men ; but the rapidity with which the ice increased in thickness, 
in proportion as the general temperature of the atmosphere diminished, would 
have rendered a day’s delay of serious importance. I ordered the work, there- 
fore, to be continued at the usual time in the morning ; and such was the 
spirited and cheerful manner in which this order was complied with, as well 
as the skill which had now been acquired in the art of sawing and sinking 
the ice, that, although the thermometer was at 6° in the morning, and rose 
no higher than 9° during the day, we had completed the canal at noon, having 
effected more in four hours than on either of the two preceding days. The 
whole length of this canal was four thousand and eighty-two yards, or nearly 
two miles and one-third, and the average thickness of the ice was seven inches. 
At half-past one P.M. we began to track the ships along in the same manner 
as before, and at a quarter past three we reached our winter-quarters, and 
hailed the event with three loud and hearty cheers from both ships’ companies. 
The ships were in five fathoms’ water, a cable’s length from the beach on the 
north western side of the harbour, to which I gave the name of Winter Har- 
bour ; and I called the group of islands which we had discovered in the 
