OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
253 
The weather became foggy at night; the young ice, which had, for several 1820. 
evenings past, begun to form upon the surface of the sea, as the sun became 
low, did not thaw during the whole of this day. Mr. Fisher was again 
successful in his sporting excursion, bringing in nine hares, the greater part 
of which were still beautifully white ; about a dozen young ptarmigan were 
also killed in each ship. The vegetation. in this neighbourhood was much the 
same as in our last station; the sorrel had now become too insipid to be at 
all palatable. 
On the 18th the weather was alternately clear and cloudy, with a slight air Frid. 18 . 
of wind from the S.W. The ice continued close to the land as far as we 
could see in both directions, and without the smallest perceptible motion till 
the evening, when it slackened a little along the shore. I immediately 
despatched Mr. Nias to Cape Providence, which was still two miles and a half 
to the eastward of us, to examine the appearance of the ice beyond it. He 
reported, on his return, that it was slack at the distance of two hundred yards 
from the shore, as far as the Cape, but that to the eastward there was no 
appearance of clear water. As there was not the smallest security for the 
ships for the next three or four miles along the shore, it was necessary still 
to continue in our present place of refuge. 
It was again nearly calm on the 19th, and the weather was foggy for some Sat. 19. 
hours in the morning. In the evening, having walked to Cape Providence, 
to see if there was any possibility of moving the ships, I found the ice so 
close that a boat could not have passed beyond the Cape ; but a light air 
drifting the ice slowly to the eastward at this time, gave me some hopes of 
soon being enabled to make our escape from this tedious as well as vexatious 
confinement. At a quarter past eight it was high-water by the shore ; about 
this time the ice ceased driving to the eastward, and shortly after returned in 
the opposite direction. This coincidence, if it be only such, seemed in some 
degree to confirm what I had hitherto considered to be the case with respect 
to the flood-tide coming from the westward upon this coast; but it may, 
perhaps, have been occasioned only by the usual superficial current, as a light 
air sprung up from the eastward about that time. 
At half-past eleven P.M., some heavy pieces of the grounded ice, to which 
our bow-hawser was secured, fell off into the water, snapping the rope in 
two, without injuring the ship. As, however, every alteration of this kind 
must materially change the centre of gravity of the whole mass, which already 
appeared in a tottering state, I thought it prudent to move the Hecla out of 
