g among such ice, most of which
drew more water than the Hecla, and could not, therefore, be
turned by her weight, was this day rendered very apparent, the
ships having received by far the heaviest shocks which they
experienced during the voyage. They continued, however, to drive
till they were about three miles to the eastward of Cape
Providence, where the low land commences; when, finding that there
was not any appearance of open water to the eastward or southward,
and that we were now incurring the risk of being beset at sea,
without a chance of making any farther progress, we hauled in for
the largest piece of grounded ice we could see upon the beach,
which we reached at six P.M., having performed six miles of the
most difficult navigation I have ever known among ice. The Hecla
was made fast in from eighteen to twenty feet water close to the
beach, and the Griper in four fathoms, about half a mile to the
westward of us.

The situation in which the ships were now placed, when viewed in
combination with the shortness of the remaining part of the
season, and the period to which our resources of every kind could
be extended, was such as to require a more than ordinary
consideration, in order to determine upon the measures most proper
to be pursued for the advancement of the public service, and the
security of the ships and people committed to my charge. Judging
from the close of the summer of 1819, it was reasonable to
consider the 7th of September as the limit beyond which the
navigation of this part of the Polar Sea could not be performed,
with tolerable safety to the ships or with any hope of farther
success. Impressed, however, with a strong sense of the efforts
which it became us to make in the prosecution of our enterprise, I
was induced to extend this limit to the 14th of September, before
which day, on the preceding year, the winter might fairly be said
to have set in. But even with this extension our prospect was not
very encouraging: the direct distance to Icy Cape was between
eight and nine hundred miles, while that which we had advanced
towards it this season fell short of sixty miles.

By Mr. Hooper's report of the remains of provisions, it appeared
that, at the present reduced allowance (namely, two thirds of the
established proportion of the navy), they would last until the
30th of November, 1821; and that an immediate reduction, to half
allowance, which must, however, tend materially to impair the
h