to moderate, and, by degrees,
also drew more to the southward than before. At daylight, therefore, we
found ourselves seven or eight miles from the land; but no ice was in
sight, except the "sludge," of honey-like consistence, with which almost
the whole sea was covered. A strong blink, extending along the eastern
horizon, pointed out the position of the main body of ice, which was
farther distant from the eastern shore of the inlet than I ever saw it.
Being assisted by a fine working breeze, which, at the same time,
prevented the formation of any more ice to obstruct us, we made
considerable progress along the land, and at noon were nearly abreast of
Jackson Inlet, which we now saw to be considerably larger than our
distant view of it on the former voyage had led us to suppose. A few
more tacks brought us to the entrance of Port Bowen, which, for two or
three days past, I had determined to make our wintering-place, if, as
there was but little reason to expect, we should be so fortunate as to
push the ships thus far. Beating up, therefore, to Port Bowen, we found
it filled with "old" and "hummocky" ice, attached to the shores on both
sides, as low down as about three-quarters of a mile below Stony Island.
Here we made fast in sixty-two fathoms water, running our hawsers far in
upon the ice, in case of its breaking off at the margin.

CHAPTER III.

Winter Arrangements.--Improvements in Warming and Ventilating the
Ships.--Masquerades adopted as an Amusement to the
Men.--Establishment of Schools.--Astronomical
Observations.--Meteorological Phenomena.

_Oct_.--Our present winter arrangements so closely resembled, in
general, those before adopted, that a fresh description of them would
prove little more than a repetition of that already contained in the
narratives of our former voyages.

To those who read, as well as to those who describe, the account of a
winter passed in these regions can no longer be expected to afford the
interest of novelty it once possessed; more especially in a station
already delineated with tolerable geographical precision on our maps,
and thus, as it were, brought near to our firesides at home.
Independently, indeed, of this circumstance, it is hard to conceive any
one thing more like another than two winters passed in the higher
latitudes of the Polar Regions, except when variety happens to be
afforded by intercourse with some other branch of "the whole