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COBEESPOXDEjSrCE. 
or fixed floe ; after this the quarter-deck housing was got down, not a 
minute too soon, as it would have been seriously damaged had it remained 
half an hour longer. The wind later in the morning decreased to eight, 
and is now nine. The deck was thickly covered with snow. At 8 a. m. 
the ice became stationary ; the men were engaged in clearing up decks, 
&c. On the 16th and 17th of April the ice broke up around us, leaving 
a large lane of water to the sternward. On the 17th we were driven 
from the edge of the floe, leaving four or five dogs behind us, and with 
difficulty getting the boats which were on the floe on board. "We made 
sail, and ran about twenty-five miles to the eastward, when we were 
again beset in the ice. We remained here until the 2-5th. A tremendous 
swell came up from the ocean to the southward, the effect of a south-east 
gale, which broke lip the ice, and raising waves thirteen feet high. The 
pieces of ice were driven against the ship with terrific violence. Steam 
was made immediately, and also sail, and the ship was kept head to the 
swell; had it not been so, the ship’s sides would have been battered in 
in a very short time. We continued from 2 a. m - . on Sunday, the 25th, 
until 8 p. m., steaming, at which latter hour we had advanced twenty- 
eight miles, and at last found ourselves clear of the ice. So good-bye to 
it; and we set sail for Holsteinborg, and here I am. We reached this 
on the 28th. We leave, most likely, on the 7th.” 
[As we were going to press, we were favoured by Dr. Alfred H. 
M‘Clintock with the subjoined letter, just received by him from his 
brother. The good news of progress contained in it affords some com¬ 
pensation for the disasters of the “ Fox’s” cruise last year.— Eds. Hat. 
Hist. Rev.] :— 
“ 1 Fox, 1 near Cape Warrender, Lancaster Sound, 
12th July, 1858. 
“ My dear Aleeed,— My last letter to you was written on the 3rd of 
June, at Uppernavik, and put on board a whaler (‘ Emma,’ of Hull, Cap¬ 
tain John Parker), together with a box of bird-skins, &c. 
“We were fortunate enough to get through Melville Ray, and reach 
Cape York, by the 26th June, and there communicated with the natives. 
They told us that Kane’s Esquimaux (Hans) was married, and living 
in Whale Sound, but was most anxious to get back to South Greenland. 
We only entered Lancaster Sound this morning, having met with an 
unusual quantity of ice when crossing from Cape York. Here we also 
met with natives (near Cape Horsburgh), but they could only give us 
the very unwelcome intelligence that Rarrow Strait is still frozen over. 
“ 17th July. The last bit of news I have written had a very disqui¬ 
eting effect upon me, I assure you. I do not accuse the natives of wil¬ 
fully misstating anything; but I have been able to prove that they were 
wrong. We are now across Lancaster Sound, and off the entrance of 
Kavy Roard Inlet. All this sea is covered with loose, but broken-up, 
ice, which the first westerly wind will carry away. The summer ap¬ 
pears to be a forward one, and I think our prospects are very fair. I am 
now bound for Pond’s Ray, where I commence my search, for information 
