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1861 Oct 20 + [[Sunday]]

this Morning that he saw enough while on the "Look-Out" yesterday to convince him that there was a very heavy Pack outside.  Gardiner & Lamb took as good a view as they could get from the "Look-Out".  They saw the pack & report it  'very heavy to the North - but at the middle of the entrance to the Bay less Pack - looked scattering'.  Had they been 100 feet higher they would have seen solid pack beyond.  The highest part of Look-Out does not admit of of an extended view of Davis Strait.  One on the high land, say top of Mount Budington or on the highest points West side of this Bay can see many miles out into Davis Straits.  The view wh. I had on 17th was the most extensive of any I have had on this side Davis Strait.
The natives have passed this AM on the ice from shore to the ship & vice versa.  "Sharkey" was the 1st who performed the passage.
About X AM a Boat was launched from the shore by the natives.  They got it through the ice down into the water after working some time.  Then they commenced cutting away the ice before the Boat - at last Sharkey left it & made for the ship over the ice.  The balance, fearing to venture, continued to break ice & make passage to ship.  It took them full one hour & a half to get here - distance 75 fathoms.
The taking in blubber from off the whale was completed about 11 AM, when the Try-works were put under way.  So much of the blubber as was on deck exposed to the air froze solid last night.  What remained around the carcass was kept warm by the heat still in it.

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1861 Oct 20 + [[Sunday]]

The natives, as I take it, from their general conduct & remarks, are anxious that we shall be able to get away.  I think I can [[underlined]] imagine why they do not wish the "George Henry" to Winter here. [[/underlined]] 
Now one P.M.  The Thermometer at 13° - Sun shining brightly - the sky cloudless.  For three days now had there been a clear way before us, could not have got out, for there has not been wind enough to fill the sails.  [[underlined]] Surely we are doomed to Winter here! [[/underlined]]
Just as we were to start for a warmer clime - for the land of our birth, we find ourselves surrounded by such circumstances as would strike thousands & thousands living in a Land of luxury & comfort (to wit the U.S.) with terror & dismay.
Another year of disappointment is mine.  My mission to the North yet unaccomplished.  I was rejoicing in my heart that the time had nearly arrived when I should be on my way to the States for the object of preparing again for the voyage to King William's Land, when a thunderbolt from an icy sky descends & [[underlined]] mires my dearest purposes! [[/underlined]]