and Fife,
who were of Lieutenant Hoppner's party, and who were awakened by a
loud grinding noise, which, as they had soon the satisfaction to
find, was occasioned by the heavy field-ice setting rapidly to the
eastward, at the distance of five miles from the land, and
apparently at the rate of a mile an hour. The wind was at this
time moderate, but on the preceding day it had blown a fresh
northerly gale.

For some days past Scott had been gradually growing worse, and on
the evening of the 29th he was so far exhausted that Mr. Edwards
did not expect him to survive through the night. At two A.M. on
the 30th I was informed by that gentleman that Scott was dying;
and, before I could get my clothes on, he had breathed his last,
without any apparent pain.

On Sunday, the 2d of July, after divine service had been
performed, the body of the deceased was committed to the earth, on
a level piece of ground about a hundred yards from the beach; with
every solemnity which the occasion demanded, and the circumstances
of our situation would permit. The ensigns and pendants were
lowered half-mast during the procession, and the remains of our
unfortunate shipmate were attended to the grave by every officer
and man in both ships. A neat tombstone was afterward placed at
the head of the grave by Mr. Fisher, who carved upon it the name
of the deceased, with the other usual information.

The dissolution of the ice of the harbour went on so rapidly in
the early part of July, that we were greatly surprised, on the
6th, in finding that, in several of the pools of water on its
upper surface, holes were washed quite through to the sea beneath.
On examining several of these, we found that the average thickness
of the ice in the upper part of the harbour, where the ships were
lying, did not exceed two feet, which was much less than we had
any idea of. Towards the mouth of the harbour, however, where the
water was deeper, no such holes made their appearance for some
days after this. It must here be remarked, that in all cases we
found the ice to be first thawed and broken up in the shoalest
water, in consequence, I suppose, of the greater facility with
which the ground, at a small depth below the surface of the sea,
absorbed and radiated the heat of the sun's rays; and as it is in
such situations that water generally freezes the first, this
circumstance seems a remarkable instance of the provision of
nature for maintaining such a balance in t