--Anchor in Safety
Cove.--Heavy Easterly Gales.--Proceed out of the Inlet.--Arrival
in a Bay on the south Side of Winter Island.--Ships secured in
Winter-quarters.
Again leaving the ships on the 15th, we rowed before sunset
between six and seven miles along the high southwestern land,
passing what appeared a small harbour, with an island near the
middle of the entrance, and landed on a shingly beach near a small
bay or creek, extending three quarters of a mile to the W.N.W.,
and then terminating in a deep, broad valley. We left the shore at
half past four A.M. on the 16th, and in an hour's sailing, with a
fresh northwest wind, came to some loose ice, through which we
continued to make our way till eleven o'clock, when it became so
close that a passage could no longer be found in any direction.
There was also so much young ice in every small interval between
the loose masses, that the boats were much cut about the
water-line in endeavouring to force through it. In order,
therefore, to avoid the risk of being altogether driven from the
shore, I determined to attempt a passage into the bay, which was
three quarters of a mile distant; and in this, after two hours'
labour, we at length succeeded. Finding that the ice was likely to
prove an obstacle of which we could not calculate the extent or
continuance, we began at once to reduce our daily expenditure of
provisions, in order to meet any contingency.
Pages:
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280