I went away in a boat early on the morning of the 25th, in order to sound the harbour in those parts where the ice would admit the boat, with a view to take advantage of the first favourable change which might present itself. The wind having come round to the southward in the afternoon, caused the separation of a large portion of ice on the northern side of that which now occupied the harbour, and the detached pieces drifting down towards us, rendered it necessary to be on our guard, lest the ships should be forced from their anchorage. On this account, as well as from an anxious and impatient desire to make a move, however trifling, from a spot in which we had now unwillingly, but unavoidably, passed nearly ten months, and of which we had long been heartily tired, I directed lines to be run out for the purpose of warping the ships along the ice in the centre of the harbour, and at half past two P.M. the anchors were weighed. As soon as a strain was put upon the lines, however, we found that the ice to which they were attached came home upon us, instead of the ships being drawn out to the southward; and we were therefore obliged to have recourse to the kedge-anchors, which we could scarcely find room to drop on account of the closeness of the ice. Having warped a little way out from the shore, into five fathoms and a half, it was found impossible to proceed any farther without a change of wind, and the anchors were therefore dropped till such a change should take place. In the course of the evening all the loose ice drifted past us to the northward, loading that shore of the harbour with innumerable fragments of it, and leaving a considerable space of clear water along shore to the southward. On the morning of the 26th it was nearly calm, with continued rain and thick weather; and there being now a space of clear water for nearly three quarters of a mile to the southward of us, we took advantage of a breeze which sprung up from the northward to weigh, at nine A.M., and run down as far as the ice would permit, and then dropped our anchors in the best berths we could select, close to the edge of it, with the intention of advancing step by step, as it continued to separate by piecemeal. The ice across the entrance of the harbour as far as this spot, and the whole of that in the offing, of which we had here a commanding view from the Hecla's crow's-nest, was still quite continuous and unbroken, with the same appearance of solidity as it had during the middle of winter, except that the pools of water were numerous upon its surface.