132 THE ICE DISPERSES. 



CHAP. IX. 



The Ice disperses. Lose a Bear and Cub. Pot 600 Ibs. 

 of Bears -grease. Skins. Slow going. Seals at 

 tracted by &quot;Whistling. Glaciers on the Coast. Noises 

 from them. Submarine Bank. Shooting &quot;Walruses. 

 &quot;Walruses fighting. &quot;Walrus Tusks. Awkward Cus 

 tomer. Ivory. Story of Mermaids. Osteological 

 Peculiarity. Cook loses his &quot;Watch. Shoot a Bear. 

 Cold Bath. 



WHILE this bear cfiasse was going on, the sloop 

 had been carried several miles down the bay, 

 before the immense sheet of ice which I men 

 tioned as having become detached from the 

 land. As soon as this ice got fairly afloat it 

 began to star and open in all directions, and 

 it gradually broke into smaller and smaller 

 pieces and dispersed; so that by 12 o clock 

 there was not one piece as large as an acre 

 remaining visible. It is almost inconceivable 

 how rapidly a mass of loose ice appears or 

 disappears in these seas, 



We attempted to follow the main body of the 

 ice in the sloop as long as any quantity of the 



