80 FOOT-PRINTS OF A BEAR ON THE ICE. 



situation, convinced me that any further delay 

 among it would be fatal, and all these consider- 

 ations made me, as I have said, most desirous to 

 close in with the land. 



With this object, and a favourable wind, we 

 ' bored' the whole of the forenoon through the 

 lighter kind of ice, making occasional circuits 

 as the accident of shape required. Still no 

 water appeared, though the Greenlandmen did 

 not lose their faith in the dark clouds which yet 

 hung upon the skirts of the horizon, seeming to 

 recede as we slowly approached them. The 

 fresh foot-prints of a bear which had crossed the 

 ice within the last twenty-four hours was the 

 novelty of the day ; and a goose was seen where 

 perhaps none but a goose would have been seen. 

 At noon the difference in longitude amounted 

 only to four miles ; the latitude remaining the 

 same. Indeed, by the increasing closeness of 

 the ice, the difficulty of advancing in any di- 

 rection was becoming hourly greater. For some 

 time we were entirely stopped ; but by keeping a 

 press of sail set, and with the aid of a freshening 

 N. E. breeze, we forced our way by a few hundred 

 yards at a time, proceeding in this manner with 

 little variation until midnight. The wind then 

 increased considerably, compelling us to take in 

 sail ; but that which, under more favourable 

 circumstances, would have facilitated, now only 



