307 CHAP. XXI. PASSAGE TO ENGLAND. Leave Winter Quarters. - Pass Wellington Channel. · Old Ice. Progress Eastward.—Refraction.—Loose Ice in Barrow Straits.— Character of the Land. Misty Weather. — Absence of Glaciers on Favourable Wind. --- - The The Esquimaux. The Effects of Intercourse with Shipping. Effects of Civilisation in Greenland.-West Coast of Davis Straits inaccessible.-Outline of a Plan for Settlements.-Course Southward. Illusions. Icebergs of a dirty Colour. - Trim of the Ships. · Coming in among the Ice. — Thick Weather.— Crossing through the "Middle" Ice. Little Auks. The "East" Water. Models of Sledges. - Mr. Petersen. Lose Sight of "Lady Franklin.”. Prospects of being sent out to make a North-west Passage.-Crossing the Arctic Circle.-Fishing.-Drift Wood.-Luminosity of the Sea. -Aurora Borealis. - Cape Farewell.-Final Departure.-Violent Gale. One of the Crew in great Danger. Favourable Weather. -Rainy Weather. - Currents. — Foul Wind.— Birds seen.—First Ships seen.-Make the Land.-Arrival of the "Lady Franklin.”American Expedition. — Baffling Calms. · Luminosity of the Sea off Whitby. Serious Accident.—Conclusion of the Voyage. August 12th. It was rather a strange coincidence that we should be leaving Assistance Bay exactly eleven months after we had dropped anchor in it. This was a long period to be confined to one place with our ships, without having in our power to hold any intercourse with the inhabited parts of our Planet, or to see a face, but the chosen few who were engaged as ourselves. Our associations, however, were extensive, and few or none suffered from ennui, monotony scarcely found a resting place among us, and each person seemed to be bent upon some favourite theme; even among the seamen there was a desire to make the voyage subservient to some general good, as far as could be accomplished with due respect to their discharge of the duties to be exacted daily by their commanders. The spare hours that many of them devoted to the wholesome recreation both of mind and body, in walking among the hills and along the sloping beaches in the vicinity of, and around Assistance Bay, left cheerful impressions upon their minds which would never be forgotten. The entrance into it being so wide and roomy, and the gradual and undulating slopes of the land, as seen from the ships, imparted by their openness an elasticity of spirit, and a buoyancy of disposition, to which we owed much of the good health and happiness we had enjoyed for so long a period. Doubtless there was not a person on board who did not feel most thankful for being again released from the ice; but equally, doubtless, there was not one who did not feel somewhat reluctant to leave a place so happy and so comfortable as Assistance Bay. The sky was cloudless, and there was no wind; there was a film of young ice on the whole surface of the harbour, and the large fragments of old ice that were drifting about with the tides were breaking it up with a well-known noise, which we had not heard for a long time. A little before midnight the sun went out of sight at the back of the west shoulder of Prospect Hill, and now he was beginning to deck with his golden rays the western flank of the hill to the north-east, and to burst forth, dispelling the shades which his bright presence beyond the hills had thrown around us. The snow (or rather ice) in the face of the south-west bluff, illuminated by the radiant stream which flowed The to it, while the harbour was still in the shade, changed its pale white colour to a light dazzling yellow. dogs, which were still upon the pieces of ice that floated loosely round the ships, seemed to have an instinctive idea that we were about to leave the harbour, and as some of them ran about from one piece of ice to another, uttering peculiar whines to get on board, others took the water and swam along side, where some of the seamen picked them up. This was the picture which Assistance Bay presented at two o'clock in the morning, when the sounds of the windlass pawls of the "Lady Franklin" and "Sophia" began to echo from the hills. The shrill sound of the boatswain's whistle issuing from each of H. M.'s four ships in succession, was superseded for a moment, and then followed such a clattering of pawls as our winter quarters had never heard before, nor, as we presumed, would ever hear again. Our two little crafts were soon under sail, standing out of the bay, and to the eastward. There was little or no wind, and as little chance of there being any till afternoon; however, we moved on by means of a boat ahead of each. At 5 A. M. Captain Austin's squadron, with the "Felix" in tow, came up after us, and as cheers were exchanged on both sides they shot past, and were lost sight of for the last time, in the afternoon, to the westward of Beechey Island, standing on towards it. As the day advanced a slight wind sprang up, by which we crept to the eastward, and Cape Hotham was soon behind us, as the entrance of the Wellington Channel was opening out. It was full of heavy ice, which pressed upon Cape Hotham, and appeared to extend up along the west side so far that, from its southern edge, we could not see water over it. Some of the floes were of very great extent, and they appeared to be in continuous sheets of ice, more than one year old. It was very doubtful whence they could have come, for they seemed to be larger than any of the same character that we had seen in the channel to the southward of Point Petersen and Cape Grinnell. As we approached the Beechey Island side the water seemed to be free from ice as far as one could distinguish from the crow's nest, but this did not extend beyond Cape Spencer, owing to the wide berth that we had to. give Cape Hotham and the large floes which extended from it into Barrow Straits. In the evening the wind freshened up a little and filled our sails, and before midnight Beechey Island, Cape Riley, and Caswall's Tower were seen quite plainly on the north side, and on the opposite side, Whaler Point and Leopold Island could be seen at the same time. At 9 P. M. the moon rose over Leopold Island, and appeared to be very much distorted by refraction; the form was elliptical, following the direction of the horizon, and the colour was red, resembling that of the sun when viewed through |