vious washing, we found it, both by the hydrometer and by the
chemical test (nitrate of silver), _more_ free from salt than any which
we had in our tanks, and which was procured from Hammerfest. I
considered this satisfactory, because, in the autumn, the pools of water
met with upon the ice generally become very brackish, in consequence of
the sea-water being drawn up into them by capillary action as the ice
becomes more "rotten" and porous; and we might, therefore, have to
depend chiefly on melted ice for our daily supply.

No change took place till the 21st, when, on the weather clearing up, we
found that the open water we had left to the westward was now wholly
closed up, and that there was none whatever in sight. It was now also so
close in-shore, that on the 22d, Lieutenant Ross, with a party of
officers and men, succeeded in landing without difficulty. They found a
small floe of level ice close to the beach, which appeared very lately
formed. Walking up to a little conspicuous eminence near the eastern end
of the beach, they found it to be composed of clay-slate, tinged of a
brownish red colour. The few uncovered parts of the beach were strewed
with smooth schistose fragments of the same mineral, and in some parts a
quantity of thin slates of it lay closely disposed together in a
vertical position. On the little hillock were two graves, bearing the
dates of 1741 and 1762 on some of the stones which marked them, and a
considerable quantity of fir driftwood lay upon the beach.

I now clearly saw that there was, for the present, no reasonable
prospect of our getting towards any harbour; and I could not but feel
confident that, even if we did get to the entrance of any, some time
must be occupied in securing the ship. It may be well imagined how
anxious I had now become to delay no longer in setting out upon the
main object of the expedition. I felt that a few days at the
commencement of the season, short as it is in these regions, might be of
great importance as to the result of our enterprise, while the ship
seemed to be so far secure from any immediate danger as to justify my
leaving her, with a reduced crew, in her present situation. The nature
of the ice was, beyond all comparison, the most unfavourable for our
purpose that I remember to have ever seen. It consisted only of loose
pieces, scarcely any of them fifteen or twenty yards square; and when
any so large did occur, their, margins were surrounded by the sma