countered. In a few minutes it came in contact, at the rate of a mile
and a half an hour, with a point of the land-ice left the preceding
night by its own separation, breaking it up with a tremendous crash, and
forcing numberless immense masses, perhaps many tons in weight, to the
height of fifty or sixty feet, from whence they again rolled down on the
inner or land side, and were quickly succeeded by a fresh supply. While
we were obliged to be quiet spectators of this grand but terrific
sight, being within five or six hundred yards of the point, the danger
to ourselves was twofold; first, lest the floe should now swing in, and
serve us much in the same manner; and, secondly, lest its pressure
should detach the land-ice to which we were secured, and thus set us
adrift and at the mercy of the tides. Happily, however, neither of these
occurred, the floe remaining stationary for the rest of the tide, and
setting off with the ebb which made soon after. In the mean while the
Hecla had been enabled to get under sail, and was making considerable
progress towards us, which determined me to move the Fury as soon as
possible from her present situation into the bight I had sounded in the
morning, where we made fast in five and a half fathoms alongside some
very heavy grounded ice, one third of a mile from a point of land lying
next to the northward of Cape Wilson, and which is low for a short
distance next the sea. At nine o'clock a large mass of ice fell off the
land-floe and struck our stern; and a "calf" lying under it, having lost
its superincumbent weight, rose to the surface with considerable force,
lifting our rudder violently in its passage, but doing no material
injury.

On the 12th, observing an opening in the land like a river, I left the
ship in a boat to examine the soundings of the coast. On approaching the
opening, we found so strong a current setting out of it as to induce me
to taste the water, which proved scarcely brackish; and a little closer
in, perfectly fresh, though the depth was from fourteen to fifteen
fathoms. As this stream was a sufficient security against any ice coming
in, I determined to anchor the ships somewhere in its neighbourhood;
and, having laid down a buoy in twelve fathoms, off the north point of
the entrance, returned on board, when I found all the boats ahead
endeavouring to tow the ships in-shore. This could be effected, however,
only by getting them across the stream of the inlet to the