ENTANGLED IN THE ICE. 141 



300 paees more ouer the ice, before we could bring them to a good place, where we 

 might easily get out." On the 25th and 26th of June a tempest raged, and they were 

 driven to sea, being unable, as they had sometimes done before, to tie the boats to fast 

 or grounded ice. They were nearly swamped at this time by the great seas which con- 

 stantly broke over their open boats, and for some little time were separated in a fog, but 

 by firing muskets at length found out each other's position and joined company. One 

 of the boats got into a dangerous place between fixed and driving ice, and the men had 

 to unload it, and take it and the goods bodily across the masses to more open water. On 

 June 28th, the narrative continues, " We laid all our goods vpon the ice, and then drew 

 the scutes vpon the ice also, because we were so hard prest on all sides with the ice, and 

 the wind came out of the sea vpon the land, and therefore we were in feare to be wholly 

 inclosed with the ice, and should not be able to get out thereof againe. And being* 

 vpon the ice, we laid sailes ouer our scutes, and laie down to rest, appointing one of our 

 men to keepe watch ; and when the sun was north there came three beares towards our 

 scutes, wherewith he that kept the watch cried out lustily, ' Three beares ! Three beares ! ' 

 at which noise we leapt out of our boates with our muskets, that were laden with small 

 shot to shoote at birds, and had no time to reload them, and therefore shot at them there- 

 with; and although that kinde of shot could not hurt them much, yet they ranne away, 

 and in the meane time they gaue vs leisure to lade our muskets with bullets, and by 

 that meanes we shot one of the three dead. . . . The 29th of June, the sun being 

 south-south-west, the two beares came againe to the place where the dead beare laie, when 

 one of them tooke the dead beare in his mouth, and went a great way with it ouer the 

 rugged ice, and then began to eate it ; which we perceauing, shot a musket at her, 

 but she, hearing the noise thereof, ran away and let the dead beare lie. Then foure of 

 vs went thither, and saw that in so short a time she had eaten almost the halfe of 

 her." It was as much as these four could do to carry away the half of the body left, 

 although the bear had just before dragged the whole of it over the rough and hummocky 

 ice with little exertion. 



On July 1st they were again in great danger among the driving, grinding ice, 

 their boats were much crushed, and they lost a quantity of goods, and, what was of vital 

 importance at the time, a large proportion of their remaining provisions. A few days 

 afterwards their little company was still further reduced by the death of one of the sailors. 

 On July llth, and a week afterwards, they were enclosed by ice, from which they could 

 not extricate themselves. During this enforced delay they shot a bear, whose fat ran 

 out at the holes made by the bullets, and floated on the water like oil. They obtained 

 some seventy duck eggs on a neighbouring island, and for a time feasted royally. "The 

 18 of July," says the narrator, "about the east sunne, three of our men went vp vpon 

 the highest part of the land to see if there was any open water in the sea; at which time 

 they saw much open water, but it was so farre from the land that they were almost out 

 of comfort, because it lay so farre from the land and the fast ice/' They had on this 

 occasion to row to an ice-field, unload, and drag and carry boats and goods at least three- 

 fourths of a mile across; they then loaded and set sail, but were speedily entangled again, 

 and had to repeat their previous experiences. 



