226 cook's voyage to july, 



of parental affection in those animals. On the ap- 

 proach of our boats toward the ice, they all took their 

 cubs under their fins, and endeavoured to escape 

 with them into the sea. . Several, whose young were 

 killed or wounded and left floating on the surface, 

 rose again and carried them down, sometimes just as 

 our people were going to take them up into the boat ; 

 and might be traced bearing them to a great distance 

 through the water, which was coloured with their 

 blood : we afterward observed them bringing them at 

 times above the surface, as if for air, and again diving 

 under it with a dreadful bellowing. The female in 

 particular whose young had been destroyed and taken 

 into the boat, became so enraged that she attacked 

 the cutter, and struck her two tusks through the 

 bottom of it. 



At eight in the evening a breeze sprung up to the 

 eastward, with which we still continued our course 

 to the southward, and at twelve fell in with numerous 

 large bodies of ice. We endeavoured to push through 

 them with an easy sail, for fear of damaging the ship ; 

 and having got a little farther to the southward, 

 nothing was to be seen but one compact field of ice, 

 stretching to the south-west south-east and north- 

 east, as far as the eye could reach. This unexpected 

 &nd formidable obstacle put an end to Captain Clerke's 

 plan of visiting the Tschutski ; for no space remained 

 open but back again to the northward. Accordingly 

 at three in the morning of the 11th, we tacked and 

 stood to that quarter. At noon the latitude, by ob- 

 servation, was 67° 49', and longitude 188° 47'. 



On the 12th, we had light winds, with thick hazy 

 weather ; and, on trying the current, we found it set 

 to the north-west, at the rate of half a knot an hour. 

 We continued to steer northward, with a moderate 

 southerly breeze, and fair weather, till the 13th, at 

 ten in the forenoon, when we again found ourselves 

 close in with a solid field of ice, to which we could 

 see no limits from the mast head. This at once 



