3k A WOYAGE OF DISCOVERY 
specting the place where the ice with which we are 
surrounded came from, is, in some measure, confirmed — 
from our observation to-day of the direction of the . 
current by which it is carried along. 
Our change of position during these four and 
twenty hours has altered our soundings in a contrary 
way to what might be expected ; for, although we 
have been drifting away from the land, we find that 
the water gets shallower, since we sounded yesterday 
in one hundred and twenty-five fathoms, fine sand ; 
this morning in one hundred and twenty fathoms, 
‘and in the afternoon it decreased to one hundred and 
fifteen fathoms, the same sort of bottom as before. 
A fresh breeze sprang up this forenoon from the 
eastward, which, before the evening, rose such a swell 
that we were obliged to put fenders of junk over the 
ship’s side to prevent her from being damaged ved 
tthe ice, which was all in motion. 
We added another Gull to-day to our list of birds ; 
its common name is the Black-backed, or Black- 
mantled Gull, (Larus Marinus, Lin.) 
Monday, 28th. — Shortly after day-light this morn- 
ing, a white bear was observed on the ice close to 
the ships. He came indeed so close to the Griper, that 
they fired at him from that vessel, and wounded him, 
but not so badly as to disable him much at first. On 
being pursued, however, and again struck, he either 
voluntarily or accidentally fell into the water between 
two pieces of ice, and in a short time disappeared. 
He was supposed to have been attracted to the ships 
by the smell of some herrings that were roasted in 
the Griper the evening before. The keen scent of 
these animals is well known to our Greenland fisher- 
men, and I am told that they very frequently take 
