26G 
THE FOURTH. 
merrier set of gourmands than were gathered within 
never surfeited in genial diet. 
On the 3d of July the wind began to moderate, 
though the snow still fell heavily; and the next morning, 
after a patriotic egg-nog, the liquor borrowed grudgingly 
from our alcohol-flask, and diluted till it Avas worthy 
of temperance praise,—we lowered our boats, and bade 
a grateful fareAvell to “Weary Man’s Rest.” We rowed 
to the southeast end of Wostenholm Island; but the 
tide left us there, and we moved to the ice-foot. 
For some days after this we kept moving sloAvly to 
the south, along the lanes that opened between the 
belt-ice and the floe. The Aveather continued dull and 
unfavorable for observations of any sort, and Ave Avere 
off a large glacier before avo were aware that further 
progress near the shore Avas impracticable. Great 
chains of bergs presented themselves as barriers in our 
Avay, the spaces betAveen choked by barricades of hum¬ 
mocks. It was hopeless to bore. We tried for sixteen 
hours together without finding a possibility of egress. 
The Avhole sea Avas rugged and broken in the extreme. 
I climbed one of the bergs to the height of about 
two hundred feet, and, looking avcII to the Avest, was 
satisfied that a lead which I saw there could be folloAved 
in the direction of Conical Rocks, and beyond toAvard 
Cape Dudley Digges. But, on conferring Avith Brooks 
and McGary, I was startled to find Iioav much the boats 
had suffered in the rude encounters of the last f 0 '" 
days. The “Hope” was in fact altogether unseawortby • 
the ice had strained her bottom-timbers, and it requimd 
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