410 RAINY WEATHER. [CHAP.VI. 



much caution and dexterity were required on 

 the part of the officers in keeping clear of drift 

 ice. All hands were yet occupied during the 

 day in clearing those parts of the after hold ad- 

 jacent to the leaks, and in restowing such as had 

 already been disturbed. The carpenters detected 

 a considerable rising in the lining of the star- 

 board side of the bread-room, just between the 

 sleeper and the stringer, against which there had 

 been so violent a pressure for many months past. 

 He secured it with sixteen long nails. Though 

 the wind had got round to the westward, yet, 

 thick and rainy as the weather was, all that could 

 be done was to steer clear of the ice ; but on July 

 19th, the wind again veered to the north, and 

 compelled us to beat to windward, to avoid being 

 driven on the southern shore. At noon it rained 

 heavily, and the ice was closely packed to the 

 north-east. The two pumps were kept going as 

 before, the leak making about four feet of water 

 per hour. Temperature 35° + . In the afternoon 

 the freshening of the breeze made it necessary 

 to reef the topsails, and we continued skirting 

 the edge of the pack until after midnight, when 

 on the 20th, the ice beginning to stream off, and 

 drift in vast quantities towards the southern 

 land, it was requisite to make an effort to elude 

 it, for fear of being carried with it in that direc- 

 tion. This, of necessity, threw us into the midst 



