e found
no mineral production but sandstone and clay iron-stone, when a
breeze sprung up from the eastward, bringing up the Griper, which
had been left several miles astern. We only stopped, therefore, to
obtain observations for the longitude and the variation of the
magnetic needle; the former of which was 112 deg. 53' 32", and the
latter 110 deg. 56' 11" easterly, and then immediately returned on
board and made all sail to the westward. After running for two
hours without obstruction, we were once more mortified in
perceiving that the ice, in very extensive and unusually heavy
floes, closed in with the land a little to the westward of Cape
Hay, and our channel of clear water between the ice and the land
gradually diminished in breadth, till at length it became
necessary to take in the studding sails, and to haul to the wind
to look about us. I immediately left the ship, and went in a boat
to examine the grounded ice off a small point of land, such as
always occurs on this coast at the outlet of each ravine. I found
that this point offered the only possible shelter which could be
obtained in case of the ice coming in; and I therefore determined
to take the Hecla in-shore immediately, and to pick out the best
berth which circumstances would admit. As I was returning on board
with this intention, I found that the ice was already rapidly
approaching the shore; no time was to be lost, therefore, in
getting the Hecla to her intended station, which was effected by
half past eight P.M., being in nine to seven fathoms water, at the
distance of twenty yards from the beach, which was lined all round
the point with very heavy masses of ice that had been forced by
some tremendous pressure into the ground. Our situation was a
dangerous one, having no shelter from ice coming from the
westward, the whole of which, being distant from us less than half
a mile, was composed of floes infinitely more heavy than any we
had elsewhere met with during the voyage. The Griper was three or
four miles astern of us at the time when the ice began to close,
and I therefore directed Lieutenant Liddon, by signal, to secure
his ship in the best manner he could, without attempting to join
the Hecla; he accordingly made her fast at eleven P.M., near a
point like that at which we were lying, and two or three miles to
the eastward.

On the whole of this steep coast, wherever we approached the
shore, we found a thick stratum of blue and solid ice, firmly