hills of Vansittart Island, suddenly came on, creating so
immediate and extreme a change, that I do not remember to have
ever experienced a more chilling sensation. As we could no longer
see a hundred yards around us in any direction, nothing was to be
done but to make the ships fast to the largest piece of ice we
could find, which we accordingly did at two P.M., in one hundred
and fifty-eight fathoms. Just before dark the fog cleared away for
a few minutes, when, perceiving that the wind, which was now
increasing, was likely to drift us too near the islands, we took
advantage of the clear interval to run a mile farther from the
land for the night, where we again made fast to a large floe-piece
in two hundred fathoms.

The wind, drawing round to the northward and westward, on the
morning of the 2d, increased to a fresh gale, which continued to
blow during the night, notwithstanding which, I was in hopes that
the immense size of the floe to which the ships were attached
would enable us to retain our station tolerably. It was
mortifying, therefore, to find, on the morning of the 2d, that we
had drifted more than I remember ever to have done before in the
same time under any circumstances. It was remarkable, also, that
we had not been set exactly to leeward, but past Baffin Island
towards two remarkable hills on Southampton Island, from which we
were at noon not more than seven or eight leagues distant. Thus,
after a laborious investigation which occupied one month, we had,
by a concurrence of unavoidable circumstances, returned to nearly
the same spot on which we had been on the 6th of August. To
consider what might have been effected in this interval, which
included the very best part of the navigable season, had we been
previously aware of the position and extent of the American
Continent about this meridian, is in itself certainly unavailing;
but it may serve to show the value of even the smallest
geographical information in seas where not an hour must be thrown
away or unprofitably employed.

In the afternoon an attempt was made to move, for the mere sake,
it must be confessed, of moving and keeping the people on the
alert, rather than with the slightest prospect of gaining any
ground; but, by the time that we had laid out the hawsers, the
small hole of water that had appeared again closed, and we were
obliged to remain as before.

At four A.M. on the 5th, we cast off and made sail for the land,
with a fresh br