Lieutenant Liddon accompanied me in a boat down the west shore of the harbour to the southern point of the entrance, in order to sound along the edge of the ice, where we found from seven to fifteen feet water; the ice about the entrance appeared still very solid and compact, and not a single hole was at this time noticed through any of the pools upon its surface except one, which was made by a seal, and which discovered the thickness of the ice to be there between two and three feet.

There was a fresh breeze from the northeastward, with fine clear weather, on the 22d, which made the Hecla swing round into twenty feet water astern; and the ice, being now moveable in the harbour, came home towards the shore with this wind, but not so much as to put any considerable strain on the cable of either ship; and the holding-ground being excellent, there was nothing to apprehend for their security.

A fresh gale, which blew from the northward on the morning of the 23d, caused a great alteration in the appearance of the ice near the ships, but none whatever in that in the offing or at the mouth of the harbour, except that the shores were there more encumbered than before, owing to the quantity of pieces which were separated and driven down from the northward, so that our small boat could not succeed in getting along the shore.

On the 24th the sails were bent, in readiness for starting at a moment’s notice, though it must be confessed that the motive for doing so was to make some show of moving rather than any expectation which I dared to entertain of soon escaping from our long and tedious confinement; for it was impossible to conceal from the men the painful fact that, in eight or nine weeks from this period, the navigable season must unavoidably come to a conclusion.

I went away in a boat early on the morning of the 25th, in order to sound the harbour in those parts where the ice would admit the boat, with a view to take advantage of the first favourable change which might present itself.  The wind having come round to the southward in the afternoon, caused the separation of a large portion of ice on the northern side of that which now occupied the harbour, and the detached pieces drifting down towards us, rendered it necessary to be on our guard, lest the ships should be forced from their anchorage.  On this account, as well as from an anxious and impatient desire to make a move, however trifling, from a spot in which we had now unwillingly, but unavoidably, passed nearly ten months, and of which we had long been heartily tired, I directed lines to be run out for the purpose of warping the ships along the ice in the centre of the harbour, and at half past two P.M. the anchors were weighed.  As soon as a strain was put upon the lines, however, we found that the ice to which they were attached came home upon us, instead of the ships being drawn out to the southward; and we were therefore obliged to have recourse to the kedge-anchors, which we could