neighbourhood was covered with innumerable "hummocks," and the
floes were from seven to ten feet in thickness.

After various unsuccessful attempts to get through the ice which
now lay in our way, we were at length so fortunate as to
accomplish this object by "boring" through a number of heavy
"streams," which occasioned the ships to receive many severe
shocks; and, at half an hour before midnight, we were able to,
pursue our course, through "sailing ice," to the westward.

The weather was at this time remarkably serene and clear; and
although we saw a line of ice to the southward of us, lying in a
direction nearly east and west, or parallel to the course on which
we were steering, and some more land appeared to the westward, yet
the space of open water was still so broad, and the prospect from
the masthead, upon the whole, so flattering, that I thought the
chances of our separation had now become greater than before; and
I therefore considered it right to furnish Lieutenant Liddon with
fresh instructions, and to appoint some new place of rendezvous in
case of unavoidable separation from the Hecla. At ten o'clock,
after having had a clear view of the ice and of the land about
sunset, and finding that there was at present no passage to the
westward, we hauled off to the southeast, in the hope of finding
some opening in the ice to the southward, by which we might get
round in the desired direction. We were encouraged in this hope by
a dark "water-sky" to the southward; but, after running along the
ice till half past eleven without perceiving any opening, we again
bore up. There was in this neighbourhood a great deal of that
particular kind of ice called by the sailors "dirty ice," on the
surface of which were strewed sand, stones, and, in some