occurred, the floe remaining stationary for the rest of the tide, and
setting off with the ebb which made soon after. In the mean while the
Hecla had been enabled to get under sail, and was making considerable
progress towards us, which determined me to move the Fury as soon as
possible from her present situation into the bight I had sounded in the
morning, where we made fast in five and a half fathoms alongside some
very heavy grounded ice, one third of a mile from a point of land lying
next to the northward of Cape Wilson, and which is low for a short
distance next the sea. At nine o'clock a large mass of ice fell off the
land-floe and struck our stern; and a "calf" lying under it, having lost
its superincumbent weight, rose to the surface with considerable force,
lifting our rudder violently in its passage, but doing no material
injury.

On the 12th, observing an opening in the land like a river, I left the
ship in a boat to examine the soundings of the coast. On approaching the
opening, we found so strong a current setting out of it as to induce me
to taste the water, which proved scarcely brackish; and a little closer
in, perfectly fresh, though the depth was from fourteen to fifteen
fathoms. As this stream was a sufficient security against any ice coming
in, I determined to anchor the ships somewhere in its neighbourhood;
and, having laid down a buoy in twelve fathoms, off the north point of
the entrance, returned on board, when I found all the boats ahead
endeavouring to tow the ships in-shore. This could be effected, however,
only by getting them across the stream of the inlet to the northern
shore; and here, finding some land-ice, the ships were secured late at
night, after several hours of extreme labour to the people in the boats.

On the morning of the 13th, the ice being still close in with the land
just to the northward of us, I determined on examining the supposed