About six in the morning
As the cove was so near the north-east end of Sealer 's Land , it may be well to explain that the reason this same mode of proceeding could not be carried out in a northern direction , was the breadth of the field seaward , and the danger of following the north shore when the solid ice did leave it , on account of the quantities of broken fragments that were tossing and churning in its front , far as the eye could reach from the cliffs themselves . The third day after the commencement of the thaw , the wind came round again from the south-west , blowing heavily . As was expected , this soon began to set the field in motion , driving it over towards the volcano , and at the same time northerly . About six in the morning , Hazard brought a report to Roswell that a margin of open water was beginning to form all along under the cliffs , while there was great danger that the channel which had been cut from the schooner to the nearest point beneath the rocks , in readiness for this very contingency , might be closed by the pressure of the ice without , on that within the cove . No time was to be lost , therefore , if it was intended to move the craft on this shift of wind . The distance that had been sawed through to make the channel just named , did not exceed a hundred yards . The passage was not much wider than the schooner 's breadth : and it will be easily understood that it was to the last degree important to carry her through this strait as soon as possible .