260 
VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 
1820 . 
August. 
unanimously agreed with me in opinion that any further attempt to penetrate 
to the westward in our present parallel would be altogether fruitless, and 
attended with a considerable loss of time, which might be more usefully 
employed. They also agreed with me in thinking, that the plan which I had 
adopted, of running back along the edge of the ice to the eastward, in order 
to look out for an opening that might lead us towards the American continent, 
was, in every respect, the most advisable ; and that, in the event of failing 
to find any such opening, after a reasonable time spent in the search, it would 
be expedient to return to England rather than to risk the passing another 
winter in these seas, without the prospect of attaining any adequate object; 
namely, that of being able to start from an advanced station at the com- 
mencement of the following season. 
Under all the circumstances of the case, therefore, I could not but admit 
the propriety of immediately returning to England, should our attempt to pe- 
netrate to the southward prove unsuccessful in any part of the navigation 
between the position we now occupied and Barrow’s Strait ; as it would, in 
that case, be impossible to make so much progress either to the southward or 
the westward during the short remainder of the present season, as to bring 
the accomplishment of the passage through Behring’s Strait within the scope 
of our remaining resources. 
At three P.M. we were abreast of Cape Hearne ; and, as we opened the 
bay of the Hecla and Griper, the wind, as usual on this part of the coast, 
came directly out from the northward; but as soon as we had stretched over 
to Bounty Cape, of which we were abreast at eight P.M., it drew once more 
along the land from the westward. We found a large quantity of loose and 
broken ice off Cape Hearne, and not far from the same place we came to a 
floe of young ice, of nearly a mile in length, and about two inches and a half 
in thickness, which had undoubtedly been formed this summer, probably in 
some of the bays and inlets in the neighbourhood of Bounty Cape. The 
distance between the ice and the land increased as we proceeded, and at 
midnight the channel appeared to be four or five miles wide, as far as the 
darkness of the night would allow of our judging; for we could at this period 
scarcely see to read in the cabin at ten o’clock. The snow which fell during 
the day was observed, for the first time, to remain upon the land without dis- 
solving; thus affording a proof of the temperature of the earth’s surface having 
again fallen below that of freezing ; and giving notice of the near approach 
of another long and dreary winter. One or two fulmar petrels, some tern, 
