M., bringing some peat, which was found to burn tolerably,
but a smaller quantity than I had hoped to procure. We then made
sail for Cape Hearne, which we rounded at six o'clock, having no
soundings with from seventeen to twenty fathoms of line, at the
distance of a mile and a quarter from the point.
I was beginning once more to indulge in those flattering hopes, of
which often-repeated disappointments cannot altogether deprive us,
when I perceived from the crow's-nest a compact body of ice,
extending completely in to the shore near the point which formed
the western extreme. We ran sufficiently close to be assured that
no passage to the westward could at present be effected, the floes
being literally upon the beach, and not a drop of clear water
being visible beyond them. I then ordered the ships to be made
fast to a floe, being in eighty fathoms' water, at the distance of
four or five miles from the beach. The season had now so far
advanced as to make it absolutely necessary to secure the ships
every night from ten till two o'clock, the weather being too dark
during that interval to allow of our keeping under way in such a
navigation as this, deprived as we were of the use of compasses.
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.
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