off again to a little
distance from the shore.

At noon the heavy floe at the point near us began to quit the
land, and at half past one P.M., there being a narrow passage
between them, the breadth of which the breeze was constantly
increasing, we cast off and stretched to the westward. The channel
which opened to us as we proceeded varied in its general breadth
from one to two miles; in some places it was not more than half a
mile. The wind was variable and squally, but we made great
progress, along the land to the S.W.b.W., and the Griper, by
keeping up tolerably with the Hecla, in some measure redeemed her
character with us. Having arrived off Cape Providence at eleven
P.M., the wind became light and baffling, so that we had just got
far enough to see that there was a free and open channel beyond
the westernmost point visible of Melville Island, when our
progress was almost entirely stopped for want of a breeze to
enable us to take advantage of it. The anxiety which such a
detention occasions in a sea where, without any apparent cause,
the ice frequently closes the shore in the most sudden manner, can
perhaps only be conceived by those who have experienced it. We
remarked, in sailing near the ice this evening, while the wind was
blowing a fresh breeze off the land, and therefore directly
towards the ice, that it remained constantly calm within three or
four hundred yards of the latter; this effect I do not remember to
have observed before upon the windward side of any collection of
ice, though it invariably happens, in a remarkable degree, to
leeward of it. I may here mention, as a striking proof of the
accuracy with which astronomical bearings of objects may be taken
for marine surveys, that the relative bearing of Capes Providence
and Hay, as obtained this evening when the two headlands were
opening, differed only one minute from that entered in the
surveying-book, and found in the same manner the preceding year.

At one P.M. on the 5th, the weather continuing quite calm, and
being desirous of examining the ice in-shore, that we might be
ready for the floes closing upon us, I left the ship, accompanied
by Captain Sabine and Mr. Edwards, and landed near one of the
numerous deep and broad ravines with which the whole of this part
of the island is indented. We were ascending the hill, which was
found by trigonometrical measurement to be eight hundred and
forty-seven feet above the level of the sea, and on which w