This was however impracticable, the channel being blocked up by drift ice, and we had no prospect of release except by a change of wind.

This detention was extremely vexatious as we were losing a fair wind and expending our provision.

In the afternoon the weather cleared up and several men went hunting but were unsuccessful.

During the day the ice floated backwards and forwards in the harbour, moved by currents not regular enough to deserve the name of tide, and which appeared to be governed by the wind.
We perceived great diminution by melting in the pieces near us.

That none of this ice survives the summer is evident from the rapidity of its decay and because no ice of last year's formation was hanging on the rocks.
Whether any body of it exists at a distance from the shore we could not determine.
The land around Cape Barrow and to Detention Harbour consists of steep craggy mountains of granite rising so abruptly from the water's edge as to admit few landing-places even for a canoe.