OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
231 
and-on in the afternoon, in more than one part, we had from seven to ten 18-20. 
fathoms at two hundred yards from the shore ; to which distance, from the 
confidence we had acquired in the regularity of the soundings, we had no 
hesitation in standing as often as there was occasion to do so, and always 
without any apparent risk. So perfectly free from danger, indeed, is the 
whole of this coast, as long as the hand-leads are kept going, that it has 
often occurred to me as not improbable, that the annual motion of large and 
heavy masses of ice may in some degree prevent the accumulation of sandy 
shoals near the shore, where local circumstances might otherwise tend to 
produce them, as in other seas. 
Shortly after our anchoring, the Griper’s people heard the growling of a 
bear among the ice near them, but the animal did not appear ; and this was 
the only instance of our meeting with a bear, during our stay at Melville 
Island, except that which followed one of our men to the ships, soon after 
our arrival in Winter Harbour. Both crews were sent on shore to pick 
sorrel, which was here not less abundant than at our old quarters, but it was 
now almost too old to be palatable, having nearly lost its acidity and juice. 
We were here a mile or two to the westward of Lieutenant Hoppner’s 
hunting-station, and the wall which he had built round his tents, with a 
boarding-pike in the middle of it, was visible from the ships. The only 
game we obtained here consisted of a few king-ducks, some of the young of 
which were also procured. 
The snow which fell in the night was, in the morning of the 3d, sue- Thurs. 3. 
ceeded by a thick fog, which continued during the day, preventing our seeing 
the state of the ice to the westward. I, therefore, despatched Mr. Palmer in 
a boat to the point, for the purpose of ascertaining whether it was still close 
there. On his return in an hour, Mr. Palmer reported that no alteration had 
taken place since the preceding day, there not being sufficient room for the 
smallest boat to pass between the ice and the point, close to which he found 
a depth of nine fathoms. At night the wind got round to W.N.W., and after- 
wards to north, which made the weather clear, and gave us hopes of the ice 
drifting off the land. 
At one A.M. on the 4th, the loose ice was observed to be drifting in upon 
us, the wind having veered to the eastward of north ; and soon after a 
floe, of not less than five miles in length, and a mile and a half across, was 
found to be approaching the shore at a quick rate. The ships were imme- 
diately hauled as near the shore as possible, and preparation made for un- 
