TO THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 257 
Wednesday, 23d.— A breeze of wind sprung up 
this forenoon from the westward, which, in a short 
time, drove the ice a little way off the land, or 
rather slackened it, for it did not open a clear pas- 
sage. We availed ourselves however of the open- 
ing, such as it was, and at half-past twelve, A. M. 
cast off, and made sail to the eastward; but we 
were obliged to make fast again at seven o’clock in 
the evening, the ice being close in with the land. 
Abreast of where we made fast this evening, we 
found the large piece of ice that was mentioned on 
the 9th instant, as having been pressed up on its 
edge, from which circumstance it would appear, 
that there is a current, or prevailing tide setting to 
the eastward along this coast, as this piece of ice 
has come about twenty miles to the eastward within 
these sixteen days past, the difference of longitude 
alone being upwards of a degree. 
Thursday, 24th.— We cast off and sailed again 
at ten o’clock this forenoon, but the ice was 
-so close that we made but little progress, and at 
noon we were stopped by it altogether, and again 
made fast to a hummock_ of ice aground in nine 
fathoms’ water. Soon after we made fast, we ob- 
served a herd of seven musk-oxen at the foot of a 
hill, at the distance of about two miles from the 
beach. We prepared immediately to go after them, 
but the eagerness of one or two who wished to be 
foremost set them off before we got sufficiently 
near; by following them, however, we succeeded 
in shooting one of them, which was a bull, and ap- 
parently the largest in the herd. Among those that 
got away there were two calves, and all the rest, 
Ss 
