The ships left Magdalena Bay, June 7, and made their slow way through brash ice which became thicker and more impenetrable until a fortunate breeze dispersed it. Sailing in a westerly direction, they encountered several whale-ships, which reported others beset by the ice in that direction. Captain Buchan changed his course and stood to the northward, passing Cloven Cliff, an isolated rock, marking the northwestern boundary of Spitzbergen. Near Red Bay they were stopped by the ice, and the channel by which the vessels had entered became entirely closed. The ships were here hemmed in, in almost the same position where Baffin, Hudson, Poole, Captain Phipps, and all the early voyagers to this quarter had been stopped. Of their perilous situation, Lieutenant Beechey writes:— “The ice soon began to press heavily upon us, and, to add to our difficulties, we found the water so shallow that the rocks were plainly discovered under the bottoms of the ships. It was impossible, however, by any exertion on our part, to improve the situation of the vessels. They were as firmly fixed in the ice as if they had formed part of the pack, and we could only hope that the current would not drift them into still shallower water, and damage them against the ground.” It was now found necessary to attach the ships to floes by ice-anchors, which was done with considerable exertion. Taking advantage of a break in the ice, they reached Vogel Sang about June 28, where the crew were fortunate enough to secure forty reindeer and plenty of eider-ducks. On the 6th of July, Captain Buchan, finding the ice conditions favourable, determined to make as far an advance to the north as possible. By most arduous labours in warping and tracking, etc., he attained a latitude of 80° 34´ N., but, though attached to floes, he found himself being carried to the southward by the current. On the 15th and 16th of July, both ships suffered considerable ice pressure. The nine days following, the crew worked night and day to free the ships and get into open water. Having given the ice a fair trial and proved it unnavigable, Buchan turned his attention toward the eastern coast of Greenland, intending, if it proved impenetrable there, to round the south cape of Spitzbergen and attempt to make an advance between that island and Nova Zembla. A terrific gale struck them the 30th of July, which brought down the ice upon them and threatened their immediate destruction. Of this encounter Lieutenant Beechey gives a most vivid description:—