306 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. IX. 



hour, all hands of us were employed, to our great satisfac- 

 tion, in discussing the merits not only of the said heart and 

 liver, but a pound per man of the flesh ; besides which, 

 some or other of the men were constantly frying steaks 

 during the whole day, over a large fire made of the blubber." 

 —p. 114. 



The consequence of thus gormandizing on fat 

 bear's flesh was obvious. Devoured as it was with 

 such avidity by the men, some of them complained 

 for several days of pains such as usually arise from 

 indigestion, " though they all," says Parry, " amus- 

 ingly enough, attributed this effect to the quality, 

 and not the quantity of meat they had eaten." On 

 the 8th of August they hauled up the boats only 

 once, and had made, though by a winding channel, 

 four or five miles of southing. " This was so un- 

 usual a circumstance, that we could not help enter- 

 taining some hope of our being at no great distance 

 from the open sea, which seemed the more pro- 

 bable from our having seen seven or eight narwhals, 

 and not less than two hundred rotges, a flock of 

 these little birds occurring in eveiy hole of water." 

 On the 10th, a strong southerly wind that had blown 

 from that quarter for the last thirty hours, had 

 blown them back to the northward only four miles, 

 which it is said " afforded a last and striking proof 

 of the general tendency of the ice to drift southwards 

 about the meridians on which we had been travel- 

 ling." Arrived at 81° 30', the sea was found to be 



