OLD WHALING DAYS. 37 



time. A gale of wind rose very suddenly, which broke 

 up the land ice, and formed into a pack. The dead whales 

 broke adrift, and all were lost but one, which was a most 

 lamentable piece of ill-luck, and illustrated the old saying, 

 " There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip." 



With the land ice broken up, we sailed to the eastward 

 amongst the loose ice, and what is called the middle ice. 

 Sometimes whales are numerous and large in this neigh- 

 bourhood at this time of the year. Ships have realised 

 good voyages there when the ice has been in good sailing 

 condition, but fortune did not shine upon us. Several 

 whales were seen, but we did not succeed in capturing any. 

 Some ships got one or two. We went a little further south, 

 and killed one off Home Bay. We cruised about a long 

 time, and not seeing a chance of any more, Captain Parker 

 determined to go to Cumberland Gulf, and remain there to 

 th end of the season. He had promised the captain of 

 the McLellan he would go to seek his crew whom he 

 had left the previous year to winter in the Gulf at 

 Kemisuack. 



We sailed south, and stayed at different places for a day 

 or two, and sent our boats inshore at different headlands, 

 looking out for whales, until at last we arrived in Cumber- 

 land Gulf, and ran up with a fair wind. At Niatlik an 

 American boat came towards us. The face of the American 

 captain lit up with joy. It was a hazardous venture for him 

 to leave fourteen men to winter amongst natives for twelve 

 months. This was the commencement of men wintering 

 there, waiting for the breaking up of the ice, and the whales 

 coming into the Sound. Sometimes the ice breaks up, and 

 leaves a land floe at a distance of twelve or fourteen miles 

 from the place where the parties are wintering. It is a long 

 way to drag the blubber, and tedious to flense the whales. 

 The natives with their dogs and sledges are brought into 

 requisition. In this case the men had been fortunate, the 



