and the Middle Savage Islands, which are numerous, and several have long shoals running from them. I had set the islands and gone to bed at day-light, leaving the ship five miles from the land, and running about as many knots through the water; but was suddenly aroused by her receiving a slight blow, immediately followed by a heavy and continued shock, which heeled her so much that I imagined she was turning over. Running on deck, I found she must have struck on a rock, or piece of grounded ice, but she had forced her way over it; and on immediately sounding, had no bottom with 25 fathoms.
“Rain and fog continued until the forenoon of the 10th, when a breeze which sprung up from the N.W., directly against us, cleared the sky sufficiently to shew the Upper Savage Island; on which we had landed last voyage, bearing N.b.W., with the North Bluff N.W.b.N., distant 10 and 15 miles. Having found a heavier piece of ice than that to which we were fast, we warped to it, and our people were enabled to wash their clothes in its numerous pools, and amuse themselves on it for the day. In driving with the N.W. wind, we experienced considerable anxiety by being repeatedly swept past bergs, and frequently almost upon them. These dangerous bodies were extremely numerous here, and indeed, with the exception of the entrance of the strait, we had seen more ice than during our outward passage on the last voyage.
“We hung on until afternoon on the 11th, being unwilling to quit our floe, which was the largest yet seen, and on which, as the weather was tolerably fine, we were enabled to stretch lines for the purpose of drying cloathes, &c. which was now very requisite, as from the continual wet weather we had experienced, the ship and every thing within her had become very damp. We also sent our ponies[1], ducks, geese, and fowls, on the ice, which in the forenoon presented a most novel appearance; the officers shooting looms as they flew past, and the men amusing themselves with leap-frog and other games, while the ship lay moored with her sails loose, in readiness to quit our floating farm-yard by the earliest opportunity. A fresh N.W. wind set in at night-fall, and we again hung to the largest piece of floe-ice we could find. At day-light on the 12th, we had driven considerably. Standing alongside in the forenoon, and lamenting to one of the officers the want of amusing incident, we suddenly saw an Esquimaux close at hand, and paddling very quietly towards us. He required but little encouragement to land, and having hauled his boat up on the ice, immediately began to barter the little fortune he carried in his kayak. In half an hour, our visitors amounted to about 60 persons, in eight kayaks, or mens’, and three oominks, or womens’ boats, which latter had stood out to us under one lug sail composed of the transparent intestines of the walrus. Our- ↑ Two had been procured by Lieutenant Manico, at Kirkwall.
