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236
CLOSE THE BARRIER.
[Chap. VIII.
1841
Feb. 9. The low temperature of the air and the smoothness of the water combined to favour the rapid formation of young ice, which greatly retarded us, and rendered the attainment of our purpose of more than ordinary difficulty; although the heavy pack to the north of us was fast closing the barrier, it was still fourteen or fifteen miles distant, and favoured with a commanding breeze, we stood on between the pack and barrier towards a remarkable looking bay, the only indentation we had perceived throughout its whole extent; and as clear water was observed even to the foot of the barrier, I could not permit myself to relinquish so favourable an opportunity of getting quite close to it, although I must confess the hazard was greater than a due degree of prudence would have ventured to encounter. At 5 40 a.m., being within a quarter of a mile of its Icy Cliffs, we tacked and sounded in three hundred and thirty fathoms, green muddy bottom. We had now a better opportunity of measuring the elevation of this perpendicular barrier, which, far overtopping our mast-heads, of course limited our view to the cliffs themselves, and these we considered to be much lower than at other points of it which we had previously approached: our angles gave them an elevation of one hundred and fifty feet. The bay we had entered was formed by a projecting peninsula of ice, terminated by a cape one hundred and seventy feet high; but at the narrow isthmus which connected it to the great barrier it was not more than fifty feet high,
Feb. 9. The low temperature of the air and the smoothness of the water combined to favour the rapid formation of young ice, which greatly retarded us, and rendered the attainment of our purpose of more than ordinary difficulty; although the heavy pack to the north of us was fast closing the barrier, it was still fourteen or fifteen miles distant, and favoured with a commanding breeze, we stood on between the pack and barrier towards a remarkable looking bay, the only indentation we had perceived throughout its whole extent; and as clear water was observed even to the foot of the barrier, I could not permit myself to relinquish so favourable an opportunity of getting quite close to it, although I must confess the hazard was greater than a due degree of prudence would have ventured to encounter. At 5 40 a.m., being within a quarter of a mile of its Icy Cliffs, we tacked and sounded in three hundred and thirty fathoms, green muddy bottom. We had now a better opportunity of measuring the elevation of this perpendicular barrier, which, far overtopping our mast-heads, of course limited our view to the cliffs themselves, and these we considered to be much lower than at other points of it which we had previously approached: our angles gave them an elevation of one hundred and fifty feet. The bay we had entered was formed by a projecting peninsula of ice, terminated by a cape one hundred and seventy feet high; but at the narrow isthmus which connected it to the great barrier it was not more than fifty feet high,
