At three P.M. we were abreast of Cape Hearne; and, as we opened
the bay of the Hecla and Griper, the wind, as usual on this part
of the coast, came directly out from the northward; but, as soon
as we had stretched over to Bounty Cape, of which we were abreast
at eight P.M., it drew once more along the land from the westward.
The distance between the ice and the land increased as we
proceeded, and at midnight the channel appeared to be four or five
miles wide, as far as the darkness of the night would allow of our
judging; for we could at this period scarcely see to read in the
cabin at ten o'clock. The snow which fell during the day was
observed, for the first time, to remain upon the land without
dissolving; thus affording a proof of the temperature of the
earth's surface having again fallen below that of freezing, and
giving notice of the near approach of another long and dreary
winter.
At seven P.M., a fog coming on, we hauled up close to the edge of
the ice, both as a guide to us in sailing during the continuance
of the thick weather, and to avoid passing any opening that might
occur in it to the southward. We were, in the course of the
evening, within four or five miles of the same spot where we had
been on the same day and at the same hour the preceding year; and,
by a coincidence perhaps still more remarkable, we were here once
more reduced to the same necessity as before, of steering the
ships by one another for an hour or two; the Griper keeping the
Hecla ahead, and our quartermaster being directed to keep the
Griper right astern, for want of some better mode of knowing in
what direction we were running.
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