with little or no
immediate interval to which the name of autumn can be distinctly
assigned.

We passed Cape Edwards on the 6th; but on the 8th the formation of
young ice upon the surface of the water began most decidedly to
put a stop to the navigation of these seas, and warned us that the
season of active operations was nearly at an end.

When to the ordinary difficulties which the navigation of the
Polar Seas presents were superadded the disadvantages of a
temperature at or near _zero_, its necessary concomitant the young
ice, and twelve hours of darkness daily, it was impossible any
longer to entertain a doubt of the expediency of immediately
placing the ships in the best security that could be found for
them during the winter, rather than run the risk of being
permanently detached from the land by an endeavour to regain the
continent. We were in hopes of receiving effectual shelter from
the numerous grounded masses, but could only find berths within
one of them in five to six fathoms water. We now, for the first
time, _walked_ on board the ships; and, before night, had them
moved into their places, by sawing a canal for two or three
hundred yards through the ice. The average thickness of the new
floe was already three inches and a quarter; but being in some
places much less, several officers and men fell in, and, from the
difficulty of getting a firm place to rest on, narrowly escaped a
more serious inconvenience than a thorough wetting. The whole
sheet of ice, even in those parts which easily bore a man's
weight, had a waving motion under the feet, like that of leather
or any other tough flexible substance set afloat, a property which
is, I believe, peculiar to salt-water ice.

In reviewing the events of this our first season of navigation, and
considering what progress we had made towards the accomplishment of
our main object, it was impossible, however trifling that progress
might appear upon the chart, not to experience considerable
satisfaction. Small as our actual advance had been towards
Behring's Strait, the extent of coast newly discovered and minutely
explored in pursuit of our object, in the course of the last eight
weeks, amounted to more than two hundred leagues, nearly half of
which belonged to the Continent of North America. This service,
notwithstanding our constant exposure to the risks which intricate,
shoal, and unknown channels, a sea loaded with ice, and a rapid
tide concurred in present