all of nine inches in the water.
The wind blew from the west during the night, and drove much ice near
the boats; but as the masses took ground a little way from the shore, we
were spared the trouble of removing the boats higher up the beach.

[Sidenote: Sunday, 16th.] We were favoured in the forenoon of the 16th
by a strong breeze from the land, which, in the course of a few hours,
drove away many of these pieces towards Point Kay, and opened a passage
for the boats. We immediately embarked to sail over to the western side
of Phillips Bay, concluding, from the motion of the ice, that it must
now be detached from that shore. On reaching it, we had the pleasure of
finding an open channel close to the beach, although the entrance was
barred by a stream of ice lying aground on a reef. The boats being
forced by poles over this obstruction, we stood under sail along the
coast to about five miles beyond Point Stokes; but there we were again
compelled by the closeness of the ice to stop, and from the top of a
sand-hill we could not discover any water in the direction of our
course. The tents were therefore pitched, and the boats unloaded, and
hauled on the beach. Heavy rain came on in the evening, by which we
indulged the hope that the ice might be loosened. We were encamped on a
low bank of gravel which runs along the base of a chain of sand-hills
about one hundred and fifty feet high, and forms the coast line. The
bank was covered with drift timber, and is the site of a deserted
Esquimaux village. The snow still remaining in the ravines was tinged
with light red spots. [Sidenote: Monday, 17th.] The night was calm, and
the ice remained in the same fixed state until six in the morning of the
17th, when, perceiving the pieces in the offing to be in motion we
launched the boats, and by breaking our way at first with hatchets, and
then forcing with the poles through other streams of ice, we contrived
to reach some lanes of water, along which we navigated for four hours. A
strong breeze springing up from seaward, caused the ice to close so fast
upon the boat, that we were obliged to put again to the shore, and land
on a low bank, similar to that on which we had rested the night before.
It was intersected, however, by many pools and channels of water, which
cut off our communication with the land. As we could not obtain, from
our present station, any satisfactory view of the state of the ice to
the westward, I despatched Duncan and