he quantity of ice
annually formed and dissolved, as shall prevent any undue or
extraordinary accumulation of it in any part of the Polar regions
of the earth.

On unhanging the rudders, and hauling them up on the ice for
examination, we found them a good deal shaken and grazed by the
blows they had received during the time the ships were beset at
the entrance of Davis's Strait. We found, also, that the
rudder-cases in both ships had been fitted too small, occasioning
considerable difficulty in getting the rudders down when working,
a circumstance by no means disadvantageous (perhaps, indeed,
rather the contrary) on ordinary service at sea, but which should
be carefully avoided in ships intended for the navigation among
ice, as it is frequently necessary to unship the rudder at a short
notice, in order to preserve it from injury, as our future
experience was soon to teach us. This fault was, however, soon
remedied, and the rudders again hung in readiness for sea.

On the 14th a boat passed, for the first time, between the ships
and the shore, in consequence of the junction of a number of the
pools and holes in the ice; and on the following day the same kind
of communication was practicable between the ships. It now became
necessary, therefore, to provide against the possibility of the
ships being forced on shore by the total disruption of the ice
between them and the beach, and the pressure of that without, by
letting go a bower-anchor underfoot, which was accordingly done as
soon as there was a hole in the ice under the bows of each
sufficiently large to allow the anchors to pass through. We had
now been quite ready for sea for some days; and a regular and
anxious look-out was kept from the crow's-nest for any alteration
in the state of the ice which might favour our departure from
Winter Harbour, in which it now became more than probable that we
were destined to be detained thus inactively for a part of each
month in the whole year, as we had readied it in the latter part
of September, and were likely to be prevented leaving it till
after the commencement of August.

From six A.M. till six P.M. on the 17th, the thermometer stood
generally from 55 deg. to 60 deg.; the latter temperature being the
highest which appears in the Hecla's Meteorological Journal during
this summer. It will readily be conceived how pleasant such a
temperature must have been to our feelings after the severe winter
which immediately preced