tory, while I sounded the
entrance of the harbour in order to complete the survey, which no
opportunity had offered of doing before this time. At one P.M.,
having got everything on board, and the ice appearing to be still
leaving the shore, we weighed, and ran out of Winter Harbour, in
which we had actually, as had been predicted, passed ten whole
months, and a part of the two remaining ones, September and
August.

In running along shore towards Cape Hearne, generally at the
distance of half a mile from the land, we had from ten to sixteen
fathoms' water, and rounded the hummocks off the point in six and
a half fathoms by three P.M. As we opened the point, it was
pleasing to see that the coast to the westward of it was more
clear of ice (excepting the loose pieces which lay scattered about
in every direction, but which would not very materially have
impeded the navigation with a fair wind) than it had been when we
first arrived off it, a month later in the foregoing year; the
main ice having been blown off by the late westerly and
northwesterly winds to the distance of four or five miles from the
shore, which, from all we have seen on this part of the coast,
appears to be its utmost limit. The navigable channel, with a
beating wind between the ice and the land, was here from one to
two, or two miles and a half in width; and this seemed, from the
masthead, to continue as far as the eye could reach along shore to
the westward.

We found the wind much more westerly after we rounded the point,
which made our progress slow and tedious; the more so, as we had
every minute to luff for one piece of ice and to bear up for
another, by which much ground was unavoidably lost.

After a very few tacks, we had the mortification to perceive
that the Griper sailed and worked much worse than before,
notwithstanding every endeavour which Lieutenant Liddon had been
anxiously making, during her re-equipment, to improve those
qualities in which she had been found deficient. She missed stays
several times in the course of the evening, with smooth water
and a fine working breeze, and by midnight the Hecla had gained
eight miles to windward of her, which obliged me to heave to,
notwithstanding the increased width of the navigable channel, the
weather having become hazy, so as to endanger our parting company.

Soon after noon on the 2d, a breeze sprung up from the S.S.W.,
which, being rather upon the shore, made it likely that the ice
wo