Another very important advantage in setting
off on this meridian appeared to me to be, that, the land of Spitzbergen
lying immediately over against the ice, the latter could never drift so
much or so fast to the southward as it might farther to the westward.
Upon these grounds it was that I was anxious to make an attempt, at
least, as soon as our arrangements could be completed; and the officers
being of the same opinion as myself, we hoisted out the boats early in
the morning of the 27th, and, having put the things into one of them,
endeavoured, by way of experiment, to get her to a little distance from
the ship. Such however, were the irregularities of the ice, that, even
with the assistance of an additional party of men, it was obvious that
we could not have gained a single mile in a day, and, what was still
more important, not without almost certain and serious injury to the
boats by their striking against the angular masses. Under these
circumstances, it was but too evident to every one that it would have
been highly imprudent to persist in setting out, since, if the ice,
after all, should clear away, even in a week, so as to allow us to get a
few miles nearer the main body, time would be ultimately saved by our
delay, to say nothing of the wear and tear, and expense of our
provisions.
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