iles and a half in a N.N.W. direction, the distance
traversed being ten miles and a half. It may therefore be imagined how
great was our mortification in finding that our latitude, by observation
at noon, was only 82 deg. 36' 52", being less than _five_ miles to the
northward of our place at noon on the 17th, since which time we had
certainly travelled _twelve_ in that direction.

At five A.M. on the 21st, having gone ahead, as usual, upon a bay-floe,
to search for the best road, I heard a more than ordinary noise and
bustle among the people who were bringing up the boats behind. On
returning to them, I found that we had narrowly, and most
providentially, escaped a serious calamity; the floe having broken under
the weight of the boats and sledges, and the latter having nearly been
lost through the ice. Some of the men went completely through, and one
of them was only held up by his drag-belt being attached to a sledge
which happened to be on firmer ice. Fortunately the bread had, by way of
security, been kept in the boats, or this additional weight would
undoubtedly have sunk the sledges, and probably some of the men with
them. As it was, we happily escaped, though we hardly knew how, with a
good deal of wetting; and, cautiously approaching the boats, drew them
to a stronger part of the ice, after which we continued our journey till
half past six A.M., when we halted to rest, having travelled about seven
miles N.N.W., our longitude by chronometers being 19 deg. 52' east, and the
latitude 82 deg. 39' 10", being only two miles and a quarter to the
northward of the preceding day's observation, or four miles and a half
to the southward of our reckoning.

Our sportsmen had the good fortune to kill another seal to-day, rather
larger than the first, which again proved a most welcome addition to our
provisions and fuel. Indeed, after this supply of the latter, we were
enabled to allow ourselves every night a pint of warm water for supper,
each man making his own soup from such a portion of his bread and
pemmican as he could save from dinner. Setting out again at seven in the
evening, we were not sorry to find the weather quite calm, which
sailors account "half a fair wind;" for it was now evident that nothing
but a southerly breeze could enable us to make any tolerable progress,
or to regain what we had lately lost.

Our travelling to-night was the very best we had during this excursion;
for though we had to launch and haul u