Saturday, 21 August, was [74] typical of much of the time that we spent in Melville Bay. My journal records that the day was rainy calm, overcast and foggy, the third in succession N day on which it had not been prac- ticable to take an observation for the determination of our position. Fourth day of being gripped fast in the vast field of ice, 300 miles from our destination and no relief in sight. Ice, ice everywhere, dotted here and there with small pools and short lanes of water, no variety to be seen in any direction from the masthead except some islands and headlands rising through the white desert to the east of us. The next afternoon the captain got an observation and determined that we had advanced,