of future advancement to the westward. The sea still presented the
same unbroken and continuous surface of solid and impenetrable
ice, and this ice could not be less than from six to seven feet in
thickness, as we knew it to be about the ships. When to this
circumstance was added the consideration that scarcely the
slightest symptoms of thawing had yet appeared, and that in three
weeks from this period the sun would again begin to decline to the
southward, it must be confessed that the most sanguine and
enthusiastic among us had some reason to be staggered in the
expectations they had formed of the complete accomplishment of our
enterprise.




CHAPTER VIII.

Journey across Melville Island to the Northern Shore, and Return
to the Ships by a different Route.


The weather being favourable on the morning of the 1st of June, I
made such arrangements as were necessary previous to my departure
on our intended journey. I directed Lieutenants Liddon and Beechey
to proceed with all possible despatch in the equipment of the
ships for sea, having them ready to sail by the end of June, in
order that we might be able to take advantage of any favourable
alteration in the state of the ice at an earlier period than
present appearances allowed us to anticipate.