scarcely find room to drop on account of the closeness of the ice.  Having warped a little way out from the shore, into five fathoms and a half, it was found impossible to proceed any farther without a change of wind, and the anchors were therefore dropped till such a change should take place.  In the course of the evening all the loose ice drifted past us to the northward, loading that shore of the harbour with innumerable fragments of it, and leaving a considerable space of clear water along shore to the southward.

On the morning of the 26th it was nearly calm, with continued rain and thick weather; and there being now a space of clear water for nearly three quarters of a mile to the southward of us, we took advantage of a breeze which sprung up from the northward to weigh, at nine A.M., and run down as far as the ice would permit, and then dropped our anchors in the best berths we could select, close to the edge of it, with the intention of advancing step by step, as it continued to separate by piecemeal.  The ice across the entrance of the harbour as far as this spot, and the whole of that in the offing, of which we had here a commanding view from the Hecla’s crow’s-nest, was still quite continuous and unbroken, with the same appearance of solidity as it had during the middle of winter, except that the pools of water were numerous upon its surface.

The wind being from the S.S.W. during the night of the 30th, served to close the lane of water which had appeared in the offing the preceding day, which we considered a favourable circumstance, as showing that the external mass of ice was in motion.  In the course of the day, the wind shifting to the W.N.W., we once more discovered a small opening between the old and young floes, and at eleven P.M., the whole body of the ice in the harbour was perceived to be moving slowly out to the southeastward, breaking away, for the first time, at the points which form the entrance of the harbour.  This sudden and unexpected change rendering it probable that we should at length be released, I sent to Captain Sabine, who had been desirous of continuing his observations on the pendulum to the last moment, to request that he would have the clocks ready for embarcation at an early hour in the morning.

CHAPTER X.

Leave Winter Harbour.—­Flattering Appearance of the Sea to the Westward.—­Stopped by the Ice near Cape Hay.—­Farther Progress to the Longitude of 113 deg. 48’ 22.5”, being the Westernmost Meridian hitherto reached in the Polar Sea, to the North of America.—­Banks’s Land discovered.—­Increased Extent and Dimensions of the Ice.—­Return to the Eastward, to endeavour to penetrate the Ice to the Southward.—­Re-enter Barrow’s Strait, and Survey its South Coast.—­Pass through Sir James Lancaster’s Sound on our Return to England.