observation we had frequent opportunities of repeating, immediately after the springing up of a breeze, in the Polar seas. But on the 20th, the advanced period of the season, the unpromising appearance of the ice to the westward, and the risk to the ships with which the navigation had been attended for some days past, naturally led me to the conclusion that, under these circumstances, the time had arrived, when it became absolutely necessary to look out for winter-quarters * * * *. The opinions of the officers entirely concurring with my own,’ as to the propriety of immediately resorting to this measure, I determined, whenever the sea and the weather would allow, to run back to the Bay of the Hecla and Griper, in which neighbourhood alone we had any reason to believe that a suitable harbour might be found.”
On the 22nd, at 8 p.m., the Hecla brought up a little to the eastward of her former anchorage; but the Griper, having dropped several miles astern in the course of the day, was obliged to be secured to the grounded ice off Cape Hearne, to prevent her being frozen up at a greater distance from the land. Next day Lieutenant Parry examined Fife’s harbour, and proceeded from thence to another, a short distance to the westward, which he selected for his winter-quarters, determining to cut a canal through the ice, in order to get the ships into a secure situation. By half-past 8 a.m. on the 24th, both of them were anchored in the proper position for commencing, this laborious task, the performance of which he thus describes.
- ↑ By making holes in the ice and dropping the leads through.