nature of those repairs would in all probability involve the disagreeable, I may say the ruinous, necessity of heaving the ship down. After rowing about three-quarters of a mile we considered ourselves fortunate in arriving at a bolder part of the beach, where three grounded masses of ice, having from three to four fathoms water at low tide within them, were so disposed as to afford, with the assistance of art, something like shelter. Wild and insecure as, under other circumstances, such a place would have been thought for the purpose of heaving a ship down, we had no alternative, and therefore as little occasion as we had time for deliberation. Returning to the ships, we were setting the sails in order to run to the appointed place, when the ice closed in and prevented our moving, and in a short time there was once more no open water to be seen. We were, therefore, under the necessity of remaining in our present berths, where the smallest external pressure must inevitably force us ashore, neither ship having more than two feet of water to spare. One watch of the _Hecla’s_ crew were sent round to assist at the _Fury’s_ pumps, which required one-third of her ship’s company to be constantly employed at them. The ice coming in with considerable violence on the night of the 2nd, once more forced the _Fury_ on shore, so that at low water she sewed two feet and a half. Nothing but the number and strength of the _Hecla’s_ hawsers prevented her sharing the same fate, for the pressure was just as much as seven of these of six inches and two stream-cables would bear. The _Fury_ floated in the morning, and was enabled to haul off a little, but there was no opening of the ice to allow us to move to our intended station. The more leisure we obtained to consider the state of the _Fury_, the more apparent became the absolute, however unfortunate, necessity of heaving her down. Four pumps were required to be at work without intermission to keep her free, and this in perfectly smooth water, showing that she was, in fact, so materially injured as to be very far from seaworthy. One-third of her working men were constantly employed, as before remarked, in this laborious operation, and some of their hands had become so sore from the constant friction of the ropes, that they could hardly handle them any longer without the use of mittens, assisted by the unlaying of the ropes to make them soft. When, in addition to these circumstances, the wet state of the decks and the little room left, as well as the reduced strength for working the ship or heaving at hawsers among the ice, be considered, I believe that every seaman will admit the impracticability of pursuing this critical navigation till the _Fury_ had been examined and repaired. As, therefore, not a moment could be lost we took advantage of a small lane of water deep enough for boats, which kept open within the grounded masses along the shore, to convey to the _Hecla_ some of the _Fury’s_ dry