On the morning of the 8th, there being no prospect of any immediate alteration in the ice, I directed the boats to be sent on shore from both ships, to endeavour to procure some game, as well as to examine the productions of this part of the island.  On going to the masthead, shortly after the boats had been despatched, I found that the bight of ice in which the ships were lying was not one floe, but formed by the close junction of two, so that our situation was by no means so secure as I had supposed for this bight was so far from being a protection to us, in case of ice driving on shore, that it would probably be the means of “nipping” us between the floes which formed it.  I therefore determined on immediately removing the ships in-shore, and went in a boat to look out for a place for that purpose, there being no alternative between this and our returning some distance to the eastward, into the larger space of clear water which we had there left behind us.  I found that a heavy piece of ice aground in twelve fathoms, at the distance of three hundred yards from the beach, would suit our purpose for the Hecla, and another, in ten fathoms, still nearer in-shore, was selected for the Griper.  These masses were from twenty to thirty feet above the sea, and each about the length of the respective ships.

At four P.M., the weather being quite calm, the ships were towed in-shore by the boats, and made fast in the places selected for them.

Impatient and anxious as we were to make the most of the short remainder of the present season, our mortification will easily be imagined at perceiving, on the morning of the 9th, not only that the ice was as close as ever to the westward, but that the floes in our immediate neighbourhood were sensibly approaching the shore.  As there was no chance, therefore, of our being enabled to move, I sent a party on shore at daylight to collect what coal they could find, and in the course of the day, nearly two thirds of a bushel, being about equal to the Hecla’s daily expenditure, was brought on board.  Our sportsmen, who were out for several hours, could only procure us a hare and a few ducks.

On the 11th there was no alteration in the ice near the ships and Mr. Bushnan, whom I despatched at daylight to the western cape, reported on his return, that appearances were equally unpromising in that quarter.  Mr. Dealy was fortunate enough to kill the first musk-ox that our sportsmen had yet been able to get near; but, as it was at the distance of eight or ten miles from the ships, our present situation with regard to the ice would not allow of my sending a party of men to bring it on board.  A piece of the meat which Mr. Dealy brought with him was considered to taste tolerably well, but its smell was by no means tempting.