he had now every
reason to anticipate. Convinced as I was that no human art or
power could, in our present situation, prevent such a catastrophe
whenever the pressure of the ice became sufficient, I was more
than ever satisfied with the determination to which I had
previously come, of keeping the ships apart during the continuance
of these untoward circumstances, in order to increase the chance
of saving one of them from accidents of this nature. In the mean
time the ice remained so close about the Hecla, that the slightest
pressure producing in it a motion towards the shore must have
placed us in a situation similar to that of the Griper; and our
attention was therefore diverted to the more important object of
providing, by every means in our power, for the security of the
larger ship, as being the principal depot of provisions and other
resources.

At five P.M. Lieutenant Liddon acquainted me by letter that the
Griper had at length righted, the ice having slackened a little
around her, and that all the damage she appeared to have sustained
was in her rudder, which was badly split, and would require some
hours' labour to repair it whenever the ice should allow him to
get it on shore.

Soon after midnight the ice pressed closer in upon the Hecla than
before, giving her a heel of eighteen inches towards the shore,
but without appearing to strain her in the slightest degree. By
four P.M. the pressure had gradually decreased, and the ship had
only three or four inches heel; in an hour after she had perfectly
righted, and the ice remained quiet for the rest of the day.

Every moment's additional detention now served to confirm me in
the opinion I had formed as to the expediency of trying, at all
risks, to penetrate to the southward whenever the ice would allow
us to move at all, rather than persevere any longer in the
attempts we had been lately making, with so little success, to
push on directly to the westward. I therefore gave Lieutenant
Liddon an order to run back a certain distance to the eastward
whenever he could do so, without waiting for the Hecla, should
that ship be still detained; and to look out for any opening in
the ice to the southward which might seem likely to favour the
object I had in view, waiting for me to join him should any such
opening occur.

The breeze died away in the course of the night, just as the ice
was beginning to separate and to drift away from the shore; and,
being succeeded by