nt ever
occurred) she drove to sea in the middle of the floe. Thus at the mercy
of the ice, she was carried over the shoals off the southeast point of
Igloolik in six and a half fathoms, but was then fortunately drifted
into deeper water. The swell on the outside was all that was wanting to
break up her icy prison, which, separating at seven A.M., finally
released her from confinement.

Having soon afterward received Captain Lyon's answer to my
communication, it was necessary for me to come to a final determination
on the subject therein alluded to. For various reasons, he advised that
the Fury and Hecla should return to England together, as soon as such
arrangements respecting the removal of stores and provisions, as I might
judge proper to make, should be completed.

Under such circumstances, to which may be added the uncertainty of the
Hecla's liberation from the ice to the southward before the close of the
season, I no longer considered it prudent or justifiable, upon the
slender chance of eventual success now before us, to risk the safety of
the officers and men committed to my charge, and whom it was now my
first wish to reconduct in good health to their country and their
friends. Having communicated my intentions to the officers and ships'
companies, I directed several additions to be made to their ordinary
allowance of provisions, particularly in the various antiscorbutics,
which had hitherto been reserved for cases of emergency; and then
beating up to our winter station, which I named Turton Bay, we anchored
there in the afternoon in ten fathoms, and immediately commenced our
preparations for lightening the Fury. Seven months' provisions, a bower
anchor, and a few other stores, were received by the Hecla, some of her
water, before filled as ballast, being started to make room for them;
and such other arrangements made as circumstances would permit for
improving the stowage of the Fury's hold. The bay was now entirely clear
of ice in every part; and so changed was its appearance in the course of
the last four-and-twenty hours, that it was scarcely possible to believe
it the same place that we had been accustomed daily to look upon for the
ten preceding months.

The conveyance and stowage of the stores had scarcely been completed,
when some loose ice drifting into the bay with the tide on the night of
the 10th, obliged us hastily to get under way and stand out. On the
following morning I ran across to the main