westing we had already made, and to run along the margin of the
floes, in order to endeavour to find an opening leading to the
southward, by taking advantage of which we might be enabled to
prosecute the voyage to the westward in a lower latitude. I was
the more inclined to make this attempt, from its having long
become evident to us that the navigation of this part of the Polar
Sea is only to be performed by watching the occasional openings
between the ice and the shore; and that, therefore, a continuity
of land is essential, if not absolutely necessary, for this
purpose. Such a continuity of land, which was here about to fail
us, must necessarily be furnished by the northern coast of
America, in whatsoever latitude it may be found; and, as a large
portion of our short season had already been occupied in fruitless
attempts to penetrate farther to the westward in our present
parallel, under circumstances of more than ordinary risk to the
ships, I determined, whenever the ice should open sufficiently, to
put into execution the plan I had proposed.

At seven P.M. we shipped the rudder and crossed the top-gallant
yards in readiness for moving; and then I ascended the hill and
walked a mile to the westward, along the brow of it, that not a
moment might be lost after the ice to the westward should give us
the slightest hope of making any progress by getting under way.
Although the holes had certainly increased in size and extent,
there was still not sufficient room even for one of our boats to
work to windward; and the impossibility of the ships' doing so was
rendered more apparent, on account of the current which, as I have
before had occasion to remark, is always produced in these seas
soon after the springing up of a breeze, and which was now running
to the eastward at the rate of at least one mile per hour. It was