THE STRAIT. 45 



being fine^ Charles' Island was seen to the 1824. 

 westward, so that^ although we had steered by Aug^ust. 

 compass for its northern extreme, an increase 

 in the deviation had led us to the south-east of 

 it. Standing in for the land until afternoon, 

 the wind fell, and the weather thickened — we 

 then tacked off again. On the sky clearing at 

 thirty minutes past four, we saw several wal- 

 russes lying on a narrow stream of ice, and I 

 allowed the officers to take two boats and at- 

 tack them. They soon killed two females, 

 which we hoisted in, for they were considered as 

 equal to a supply of fresh beef by the old hands. 

 In consequence of meeting Avith these animals, 

 1 was led to imagine that the water would be 

 shoal, although we were so far distant from 

 the land, and the first cast of the lead gave 

 forty- five fathoms. A slight rippling about 

 a mile north of this gave indication of still 

 shoaler water, and our casts in standing to it 

 were forty-five, forty-one, thirty-five, and thir- 

 ty-three, when it again deepened in exactly the 

 same proportion; and standing s.b.w., we came 

 gradually into seventy fathoms, after which we 

 had no bottom with one hundred and twenty. 

 Making the land indistinctly at sunset, we 

 stood oif and on all night, and passed a few 

 narrow streams of ice. 



