MELVILLE BAT. 
33 
sliore, and were doubly rewarded for our labor with a 
wind. I had observed with surprise, while we were 
floating near the coast, that the land ice was already 
broken and decayed; and I was aware, from what I 
had read, as well as what I had learned from whalers 
and observed myself of the peculiarities of this naviga¬ 
tion, that the in-shore track was in consequence beset 
with difficulty and delays. I made up my mind at 
once. I would stand to the westward until arrested by 
the pack, and endeavor to double Melville Bay by an 
outside passage. A chronicle of this transit, condensed 
from my log-book, will have interest for navigators :— 
“July 28, Thursday, 6 A. m.— Made the offsetting 
streams of the pack, and bore up to the northward and 
eastward; heading for Cape York in tolerably free 
water. 
“July 29, Friday, 9£ A.m.— Made loose ice, and very 
rotten ; the tables nearly destroyed, and much broken 
by wave action: water-sky to the northward. Entered 
this ice, intending to work to the northward and east¬ 
ward, above or about Sabine Islands, in search of the 
northeastern land-ice. The breeze freshened off shore, 
breaking up and sending out the floes, the leads rapidly 
closing. Fearing a besetment, I determined to fasten 
to an iceberg; and after eight hours of very heavy 
labor, warping, heaving, and planting ice-anchors, suc¬ 
ceeded in effecting it. 
“We had hardly a breathing spell, before we were 
startled by a set of loud crackling sounds above us; 
and small fragments of ice not larger than a walnut 
Vob. I. — 3 
