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224
GREAT ICY BARRIER.
[Chap. VIII.
1841
our ships pitched heavily, and greatly retarded our progress; but it was a gratifying evidence to us that there was still much clear water in that direction.
Jan. 30.The wind and sea had increased so much that our dull-sailing ships could no longer gain any ground by beating to windward; making two points of leeway, they could only sail again and again over the same space upon each successive tack. I thought it therefore advisable to make a long board under all sail to the north-east, so as to pass over as great an extent of unknown space as possible during the continuance of the adverse wind, and resume the examination of the barrier from the point we had last seen whenever the circumstances of wind and weather became favourable for doing so. The whole aspect of the sky indicated a very unsettled state of the atmosphere, whilst heavy clouds of snow drifting frequently over us obscured every thing from our sight, I therefore considered it desirable at any rate to get a greater distance from the barrier, in case of a change of wind making it a lee shore to us of the most dangerous character. The intervals of clear weather between the showers afforded us opportunities of seeing sufficiently far ahead to prevent our running into any very serious difficulty, so that we could venture to proceed with confidence. Several heavy pieces of ice were passed, evidently the fragments of the barrier or broken-up bergs, of which it was very remarkable we had not seen one during a run of one hundred and sixty miles along the barrier; from which, no doubt,