The view from the south-east part of the island led us, at first, to suppose that we might proceed by keeping close to its south shore; but in making the attempt, the boats repeatedly took the ground, and we were obliged to seek a passage by the north side of the island. At the end of a mile in that direction we were stopped by the ice being unbroken from the shore, and closely packed to seaward, as is represented in the annexed engraving, from a sketch taken by Lieutenant Back, at the tents, about thirty feet above the horizon. Since the day after our departure from the Mackenzie, when we first came to the ice, we had not witnessed a more unfavourable prospect than that before us. No water was to be seen, either from the tents, of from the different points of the island which we visited, for the purpose of examining into the state of the ice. We were now scantily supplied with fuel . . . [Franklin, p. 151.]