cate them from this helpless situation proved
fruitless for more than two hours, when the Hecla was at length
backed out, and succeeded in pushing through another part of the
stream in which a small opening appeared just at that moment. All
our boats were immediately despatched to the assistance of the
Griper, which still remained beset, and which no effort could move
in any direction We at length resorted to the expedient of sending
a whale-line to her from the Hecla, and then, making all sail upon
the latter ship, we succeeded in towing her out, head to wind,
till she was enabled to proceed in clear water. The crossing of
this stream of ice, of which, the breadth scarcely exceeded three
hundred yards, occupied us constantly for more than five hours,
and may serve as an example of the detention to which ships are
liable in this kind of navigation.

Early on the morning of the 21st the fog cleared away, and
discovered to us the land called by Davis, Hope Sanderson and the
Woman's Islands, being the first land we had seen in sailing
northward into Baffin's Bay, from the lat. of 633/4 deg. We found
ourselves in the midst of a great number of very high icebergs, of
which I counted, from the crow's-nest, eighty-eight, besides many
smaller ones.

Having now reached the latitude of 73 deg. without seeing a single
opening in the ice, and being unwilling to increase our distance
from Sir James Lancaster's Sound by proceeding much farther to the
northward, I determined once more to enter the ice in this place,
and to try the experiment of forcing our way through it, in order
to get into the open sea. Being therefore favoured with clear
weather, and a moderate breeze from the southeastward, we ran into
the ice, which for the first two miles consisted of detached
pieces, but afterward of floes of considerable extent, and six or
seven feet in thickness. The wind died away towards midnight, and
the weather was serene and clear.

At six A.M. on the 23d, a thick fog came on, which rendered it
impossible to see our way any farther. We therefore warped to an
iceberg, to which the ships were made fast at noon, to wait the
clearing up of the fog, being in lat. 73 deg. 04' 10", long. 60 deg. 11'
30". At eight P.M. the weather cleared up, and a few small pools
of open water were seen here and there, but the ice was generally
as close as before, and the wind being to the westward of north,
it was not deemed advisable to move.

The wea