Unfortunately snow was falling heavily, and the weather was so thick that little could be seen. We could just make out that the land along which we were steering, and which trended to the N.E., was composed of high cliffs with numerous ravines and valleys running down to the water's edge; but, to our disappointment, we failed to observe either harbour or bay, or any place that would afford a refuge or protection of any description for the ship. Arctic navigation, like everything else, has its dark as well as its bright side! After rounding Cape Union the coast trended away to the westward of north, and the wind, which had hitherto been blowing so fresh, suddenly subsided. So did our joyful anticipations, for one short hour after our ensign had fluttered out so gaily before the breeze, we were stopped by a barrier of ice of great thickness, through which there was no prospect of penetrating. The land also appeared to lose the bold rugged character that had been such a prominent feature between Lincoln Bay and Cape Union, and now assumed an undulating form as it trended away to the N.W., the coast being low and entirely covered with snow. Having set our minds at rest that a farther advance, for the present, was perfectly impracticable, we reluctantly retraced our steps to the southward for about a mile, and secured the ship inside a fringe of grounded floe-bergs that lined the coast and which promised to afford us protection, in fact, the only protection, from the irresistible pressure of the pack. A depôt of provisions, consisting of two thousand rations, was immediately landed, in order to guard against all accidents that might happen to the ship, and also to be of use to our southern travelling parties, should we succeed in reaching a higher latitude in the ship. The weather still continued thick; but during a clear interval we succeeded in getting a good view to the northward from the summit of a hill about two hundred and fifty feet above the level of the sea. But it was a most cheerless scene that presented itself in that direction. Nothing but ice, tight and impassable, was to be seen--a solid impenetrable mass that no amount of imagination or theoretical belief could ever twist into an "open Polar Sea"! We were reluctantly compelled to come to the conclusion that we had in reality arrived on the shore of the Polar Ocean; a frozen sea, of such a character as utterly to preclude the possibility of its being navigated by a ship; a wide expanse of ice and snow, whose impenetrable fastnesses seemed to defy the puny efforts of mortal men to invade and expose their hitherto sealed and hidden mysteries. Still we did not give up all hope of reaching a higher northern position in the ship. We knew the wonderful effect that a gale of wind would produce on the pack, and we hoped when the weather cleared, we should still be able to see, and reach, land to the northward.