ing not a drop of water in sight from the masthead in that
direction. To this, however, we had no objection; for being now certain
that the ice was at liberty to move in the western part of the strait,
we felt confident that, if once our present narrow barrier were also
detached, the ordinary changes of wind and tide would inevitably afford
us opportunities of making progress. The westerly wind was accompanied
by fine snow, which continued during the night, rendering the weather
extremely thick, and our situation, consequently, very precarious,
should the ice give way during the hours of darkness.
At four P.M. on the 15th we discovered our travellers upon the ice. A
fresh party being despatched to meet and to relieve them of their
knapsacks, Lieutenant Reid arrived safely on board at seven P.M.,
having, by a quick and most satisfactory journey, ascertained the
immediate junction of the Strait of the Fury and Hecla with the Polar
Sea.
The weather continuing very thick, with small snow, and there being now
every reason to suppose a final disruption of the fixed ice at hand, I
determined to provide against the danger to which, at night, this
long-wished-for event would expose the ships, by adopting a plan that
had often before occurred to me as likely to prove beneficial in an
unknown and critical navigation such as this. This was nothing more than
the establishment of a temporary lighthouse on shore during the night,
which, in case of our getting adrift, would, together with the
soundings, afford us that security which the sluggish traversing of the
compasses otherwise rendered extremely doubtful. For this purpose, two
steady men, provided with a tent and blankets, were landed on the east
point of Amherst Island at sunset, to keep up some bright lights during
the eight hours of darkness, and to be sent for at daylight in the
morning.
On the 17th the wind freshened almost to a gale from the northwest, with
thicker and more constant snow than before. The thermometer fell to
16-1/2 deg. at six A.M., rose no higher than 20 deg. in the course of the
day, and got down to 12 deg. at night, so that the young ice began now to
form about us in great quantities.
Appearances had now become so much against our making any farther
progress this season, as to render it a matter of very serious
consideration whether we ought to risk being shut up during the winter
in the middle of the strait, where, from whatever cause it might
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