New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1850-10-25

The * North Star dear -, is reported sac al
Leopold Harbor, the last years winterlng asylum,
of Sir James Ross We are now making all sal,
TO meet her and it may be to obtain home"afd
conveyance for hurried outline OF news 49, -,
around you our little home circle, none o. .n'il
will complain Of my addressing 70 ~"
meant for all. bot,vnen
+ha Great Pack and the shore ice oil oppSfn"FIN
we met couple of Esqumaux haia'NS' ~
thnr, sent my last home dispatches
IN the day after this we saw ahead OF US the
.hrec islands of Bailn, and ran on with tinetresh
7reeze intending to pursue the eastward route
.,ccessfnl with other navigators. Unfortunately.
however, the Great Pack perhaps better known to
you as the Middle Ice presented great linden,
1ure to the westward which invited Us to enter
We did so but the result proved unwsely.
BAFFINs BAY.
The worst feature-in fact the chief drawback
of Baflu's Bay navigation is what is called its
"Middle Ice" When winter, which here ex
ceeds in intensity any cold within your concep-
1ion fully sets n all the great bay with its sounds
inlets and entering bays becomes one solid mass
Of ice. Except the ridge hammocks or the en-
trapped bergs, there is no diversity OF surfaces
Greenland and America are cemented together
Nor does it stop here extending down along the
western coast It chokes up the great bay OF Hud,
son travels down L abrador, enters the straits OF
Belle Isle, and but for the gulf stream would belt
in Newfoundland Summer brlef, ardent sea
eon of constant life, aided by nature local COM
pengating influences, makes rapid inroads upon
this icy sea, aud at period varying with the
openness of the season, leaves the sole monument
OF all this huge central tongue OF ice known
technically to yoyagers as the Middle Pack.
TIE MIDDLE ICE.
The position of the ice, it's character, its con-
necton with the headlands of the coast, its DRIFT
its period of liberation, &c. &c. form body o.
practical questions, to be determined only by close
observation of winds season, and the host OF Ut
1e indications which experience, by sort OF tact
points out TO men who make it the business OF
their lives Such men are the whalers who, since
Sir John Ross first voyage, more than thirty years
aeo have made these their peculiar fshlng
ground And the Britsh Expeditions are there
fore accompanied by set OF men known as Ice
Masters" and (" Greenland Pilots, who are looked
upon as indispensable to Polar cruise. we
have none. The notes OF the Whaling routes
furnished by the Royal Inspector at Disco declare
ahe middle passage impossiblllty In the latltude
of 73o and thereabouts. Save Parry once, no one
has successfully achieved 1t, and even he, upon
whaling routes were by Melville Bay, past Cape
York, to the Northern Edge of the Pack, along
Che vacant space between ?5o so and TT, known
by them as the North Water Scorsbys list OF
successful passages confirms the necessity oil iol-
Rowing the open shore line, and the general tenor
Of printed authorities points to the same conclu-
zion You must not think, therefore, that we
have suffered any particular i'll luck. On the con-
arary we partly anticipated our experience.
For time it was favorable. We made forty
miles westward in nearly open water; but soon
streams of loose ice-tongues from the main barrier
thrust themselves before US; plunged deeper
and deeper into its marginal ice, it closed as we
advanced, and the early morning OF the 9th found
us stuck fast as q fly upon newly vanished
table.
NEAR DEVILS TONGUE.
Here, then, behold with horizon of ice
covered snow The Devils Tongue, striking
landmark of d aihn's Islands, rising up before ue
n monument Of our forlornness
Now came into play the ice-choin and saw the
ax and the windlass, the tow-rope and the warp
ing hawser Endless were the tickings Of the
oapstan pawls and the spicings of the main brace.
Leads (open lanes OF water seemed toopen con
stantly. Heading still west, every day found us
deeper in thrall and when we We're disposed 70
congratulate ourselves most on our progress, we
turned round to see the Devils Tongue still fork
ing Itself at us over the white plain, 1t might
have borne for an inscription IN lapdary style the
scarcely varying log OF our vessel:
Latitude July as in The ,pafE 80 S S 49, 49, n
Latitude July % s in the pncl o. a. 29 n
h0nsTS ola ' prSgpcs, in 20 days sw 2 niles
PASTIME.
While we continued thus in pack, our time did
not pass altogether without pastime. We are on
board harmonious little band of brothers, our
Captain of happy temperament and disposed to
make others happy around hun. Where variety
failed to envon us, hard work kept us from think
ing too constantly of failure. White bears aud
seals, the latter very Numerous, the former IN
numbers sufficient to gveus no less than i've peril
GUS chases over the ice htes, offered us abundant
Stir and excitement Yoii may ask me hereafter
for some of my adventures and escapes, 'but
write so slow in this cxt rene cold, that cannot
get through with what FAUST say il indulge in
episode. ,r,.>,o,,,
At last the oloquently continued bathos of the
barometer, falling by regular docrements foretold
n change in the weather. On the evening of the
2Sth, the leads began to open, and South Easter
hauling around to East drove through the foes.
Tempting water to the Northward, to say nothing
of our three weeks duress, caused change OF
views and of our course with them; and by the
morning of the Goth water ce-encircled but new
ertheess water, sploshed around our bows.
A STORM AMONG THE BERGs.
The breeze however, lreshened TO gale. Our
course was toward Melville Bay, little to the
West of North the Rescue following close in our
wake Here, again. with the wind roaring and
the shorc-swell undnlatng around US, we made q
tongue of fold.ice garnished with terrific bergs,
Boring into it, we had for half an hour scene
which [ think would compare with some of
Beechey's spit2bergen splendid horribles For a
few minutes shat we We're in the thick of the
thunderstorm of grinding icebergs, and crashing
ice.Hocs, thought that the little brig Advance
and ali its freight woGIl render troublesome task
the recall and reunion OF its particles upon the
great day when particles generally are needed
and mcnded. Here, again, YOU may ask me for a