avens in the tropics, when the
fierce sun sinks to his western rest. No gleams of purple and gold lit
up the hill-tops; no fiery streaks of sunlight streamed across the
water, or glittered on the wave. No! all was cold and silent as the
grave. In heaven alone there appeared sunshine and vitality:--it was
rightly so. Frost was fast claiming its dominion, for, with declining
sunlight, the space of water between the pack and the floe became a
sheet of young ice, about the one-eighth of an inch in thickness.

[Headnote: _CROSSING WELLINGTON CHANNEL._]

The "Assistance" and "Intrepid" were gone, it was very evident; but the
American squadron was observed in Barlow Inlet. As we approached them,
at two o'clock in the morning, they were to be seen firing muskets. We
therefore put our helms down, and performed, by the help of the screw,
figures of eight in the young ice, until a boat had communicated with
Commander De Haven, from whom we learned that one of his vessels was
aground in the inlet, and that it was no place for us to go into,
unless we wanted to remain there. The passage to the westward, round
Cape Hotham, was likewise blocked up, and no alternative remained but
to make fast to the floe to the north of us. This was done, and just in
time; for a smart breeze from the S.E. brought up a great deal of ice,
and progress in any direction was impossible.

I had now time to observe that the floe of Wellington Channel, instead
of consisting of a mass of ice (as was currently reported) about eight
feet in thickness, did not in average depth exceed that of the floes of
Melville Bay, although a great deal of old ice was mixed up with it, as
if a pack had been re-cemented by a winter's frost; in which case, of
course, there would be ice of various ages mixed up in the body; and
much of the ice was lying crosswise and edgeways, so that a person
desirous of looking at the Wellington Channel floe, as the accumulation
of many years of continued frost, might have some grounds upon which to
base his supposition. A year's observation, however, has shown me the
fallacy of supposing that in deep-water channels floes continue to
increase in thickness from year to year; and to that subject I will
return in a future chapter, when treating of Wellington Channel.

The closing chapter of accidents, by which the navigation of 1850 was
brought to a close by the squadrons in search of Sir John Franklin, is
soon told.

The "Resolute" and "Pion