The wind, drawing round to the northward and westward, on the morning of the 2d, increased to a fresh gale, which continued to blow during the night, notwithstanding which, I was in hopes that the immense size of the floe to which the ships were attached would enable us to retain our station tolerably.  It was mortifying, therefore, to find, on the morning of the 2d, that we had drifted more than I remember ever to have done before in the same time under any circumstances.  It was remarkable, also, that we had not been set exactly to leeward, but past Baffin Island towards two remarkable hills on Southampton Island, from which we were at noon not more than seven or eight leagues distant.  Thus, after a laborious investigation which occupied one month, we had, by a concurrence of unavoidable circumstances, returned to nearly the same spot on which we had been on the 6th of August.  To consider what might have been effected in this interval, which included the very best part of the navigable season, had we been previously aware of the position and extent of the American Continent about this meridian, is in itself certainly unavailing; but it may serve to show the value of even the smallest geographical information in seas where not an hour must be thrown away or unprofitably employed.

In the afternoon an attempt was made to move, for the mere sake, it must be confessed, of moving and keeping the people on the alert, rather than with the slightest prospect of gaining any ground; but, by the time that we had laid out the hawsers, the small hole of water that had appeared again closed, and we were obliged to remain as before.

At four A.M. on the 5th, we cast off and made sail for the land, with a fresh breeze from the southeast.  The ice was closely packed, against the land near the passage I had intended to try, and as it appeared slack to the eastward, I determined to run between the southeast point of Baffin Island and the smaller islands lying off it.  The wind drawing more to the eastward as we approached the channel, we had several tacks to make in getting through, but carried a good depth of water on each side, though its breadth does not exceed three quarters of a mile.  As we now advanced to the northward, we found less and less obstruction, the main body of the ice having been carried to the southward and eastward by the late gale, which had in so extraordinary a manner drifted us in the same direction.  This was one of the opportunities I have before described as the most favourable that ever occur for making progress in these seas.  We had, therefore, a fine run during the day along the east side of Sturges Bourne Islands; for, having found the passages between them still choked with ice, we were obliged to run to the northward with the hope of attaining our present object, till it was time to look out for an anchorage.  Having first sent the boats to sound, we hauled into a small bay, where we anchored at dusk in seventeen fathoms, good holding-ground, though the bottom was so irregular that we had from five to thirteen close upon our quarter.