A quarter of a mile in, we sounded a second time, and had forty-three fathoms.
"Never saw a deeper gut for its width!" exclaimed Capt.Mazard.

"What a chasm there would be here were the sea out of it!" Half a mile farther up, a third and smaller island lay at the head of the channel, which was thus divided by it into two narrow arms,--one leading out to the north-east, the other to the north-west.

This latter arm was clear of ice, showing a dark line of water crooking off among numerous small islets; but the arm opening up to the north-east was jammed with ice.

"The Curlew" went in leisurely to three hundred yards of the foot of the island, where we found thirty-three fathoms, and hove to within a hundred yards of the ledges of the island on the east side.

The anchor was now let go, and the sails furled.
"We're snug enough here from anything from the north-east or north," remarked Capt.