On the 6th the work was continued as before, and about four hundred yards of ice were sawn through and floated out, leaving now a broad canal, eleven hundred yards in length, leading from the open water towards that formed by the gravelled space. When the lateness of the season to which the ships had now been detained in the ice is considered, with reference to the probability of the Fury's effecting anything of importance during the short remainder of the present summer, it will not be wondered at that, coupling this consideration with that of the health of my officers and men, I began to entertain doubts whether it would still be prudent to adopt the intended measure of remaining out in the Fury as a single ship; whether, in short, under existing circumstances, the probable evil did not far outweigh the possible good. In order to assist my own judgment on this occasion upon one of the most material points, I requested the medical officers of the Fury to furnish me with their opinions "as to the probable effect that a third winter passed in these regions would produce on the health of the officers, seamen, and marines of that ship, taking into consideration every circumstance connected with our situation." Their answer was decidedly adverse to remaining; and it was fortified with such good reasons, connected with the health of the officers and crews, as scarcely to leave me at liberty to adopt any other course than that of returning to England with both vessels. Enclosing to Captain Lyon the replies of the medical gentlemen, I now also requested his opinion whether, under existing circumstances, he still considered it expedient to adopt the measure originally intended, with respect to the separation of the two ships. I had scarcely despatched a letter to this effect, when, at 10 A.M. on the 8th, the ice about the Fury began to move, the pools breaking up, and the gravelled canal soon entirely closing. A breeze springing up from the northward at this time, all sail was made upon the ship, and the ice gradually driving out as it detached itself from the shore, the Fury got into open water about one P.M. The Hecla, however, still remained in the middle of her winter's floe, which, though it moved a little with the rest at first, did not come out of the bay. In the course of the afternoon, finding her still stationary, I determined to occupy the time in stretching over to the northward, for the purpose of examining the state of the fixed ice at the eastern mouth of the strait; and, arriving at its margin by ten P.M., found it attached to both shores from the northeastern part of Neerlo-naktoo across to Murray Maxwell Inlet. It was the general opinion that this ice was in a more solid state than at the same time and place the preceding year, but its situation did not, I believe, differ half a mile from what it had then been. As the sun went down nearly in the direction of the strait, we obtained from the