The westerly wind took us rapidly to the line of pack, and as we entered it I stood up with my arm around the mast, directing the steering, so as to avoid the great lumps of ice that were flung about in the heave of the sea.

The pack thickened and we were forced to turn almost due east, running before the wind towards a gap I had seen in the morning from the high ground.

I could not see the gap now, but we had come out on its bearing and I was prepared to find that it had been influenced by the easterly drift.

At four o'clock in the afternoon we found the channel, much narrower than it had seemed in the morning but still navigable.

Dropping sail, we rowed through without touching the ice anywhere, and by 5.30 p.m.we were clear of the pack with open water before us.