VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 
252 
1820. At two P.M. we cast off from the shore, and fart close along the edge of 
the ice to the eastward, the general distance from the land being a mile and 
a half for the first four or five miles, and then gradually much closer. I 
acquainted the officers with the object I had now in view, and directed a 
vigilant look-out to be constantly kept for any opening in the ice that might 
favour our getting to the southward. The wind died away after five P.M., 
and then became extremely variable, shifting in “ cat’s paws” from one point 
to another as quickly as we could trim the sails. At nine P.M. we were 
abreast the place where we had landed on the 5th, and here we perceived 
that the ice closed in with the land a little to the eastward. There was no 
security to be found for the ships without getting past one of the small points 
at the mouth of a ravine, against which a floe was setting the smaller pieces 
of ice, and had blocked up the passage before we arrived at it. After two hours’ 
labour in heaving with hawsers, during which the Hecla narrowly escaped a 
severe “ nip” by the sudden closing of the ice, we succeeded in getting 
through, and, soon after midnight, made the ships fast to some very heavy 
grounded ice near the beach. We observed a number of hares feeding on the 
sides of the cliffs, as we sailed along in the afternoon, and also a few 
ptarmigan. 
Thur. 17 . The place where the Hecla was now secured, being the only one of the kind 
which could be found, was a little harbour formed, as usual, by the grounded 
ice, some of which was fixed to the bottom in ten to twelve fathoms. One 
side of the entrance to this harbour consisted of masses of floes, very regular 
in their shape, placed quite horizontally, and broken off so exactly perpen- 
dicular, as to resemble a handsome well-built wharf. On the opposite side, 
however, the masses to which we looked for security were themselves rather 
terrific objects, as they leaned over so much towards the ship, as to give the 
appearance of their being in the act of falling upon her deck ; and as a very 
trifling concussion often produces the fall of much heavier masses of ice, 
when in appearance very firmly fixed to the ground, I gave orders that no 
guns should be fired near the ship during her continuance in this situation. 
The Griper was of necessity made fast near the beach, in rather an exposed 
situation, and her rudder unshipped, in readiness for the ice coming in ; it 
remained quiet, however, though quite close, during the day, the weather 
being calm and fine. The latitude observed here was 74° 24' 50", the longi- 
tude 112° 38' 55", and the variation of the magnetic needle 111 0 19' 15" 
easterly. 
