necessary, therefore, to provide against the possibility of the
ships being forced on shore by the total disruption of the ice
between them and the beach, and the pressure of that without, by
letting go a bower-anchor underfoot, which was accordingly done as
soon as there was a hole in the ice under the bows of each
sufficiently large to allow the anchors to pass through. We had
now been quite ready for sea for some days; and a regular and
anxious look-out was kept from the crow's-nest for any alteration
in the state of the ice which might favour our departure from
Winter Harbour, in which it now became more than probable that we
were destined to be detained thus inactively for a part of each
month in the whole year, as we had readied it in the latter part
of September, and were likely to be prevented leaving it till
after the commencement of August.

From six A.M. till six P.M. on the 17th, the thermometer stood
generally from 55° to 60°; the latter temperature being the
highest which appears in the Hecla's Meteorological Journal during
this summer. It will readily be conceived how pleasant such a
temperature must have been to our feelings after the severe winter
which immediately preceded it. The month of July is, indeed, the
only one which can be called at all comfortable in the climate of
Melville Island.

On the 20th, there being a strong breeze from the N.N.E., with fog
and rain, all favourable to the dispersion of the ice, that part
of it which was immediately around the Hecla, and from which she
had been artificially detached so long before, at length separated
into pieces and floated away, carrying with it the collection of
ashes and other rubbish which had been accumulating for the last