THE ICE DISPERSES. 131 



CHAPTER IX 



The Ice disperses. — Lose a Bear and Cub. — Pot 600 lbs. of 

 Bears'-grease. — Skins. — Slow going. — Seals attracted by 

 Whistling. — Glaciers on the Coast. — Noises from them. — 

 Submarine Bank. — Shooting "Walruses. — Walruses fighting. 

 — Walrus Tusks. — Awkward Customer. — Ivory. — Story 

 of Mermaids. — Osteological Peculiarity. — Cook loses his 

 Watch.— Shoot a Bear.— Cold Bath. 



While this bear chasse was going on, the sloop 

 had been carried several miles down the bay before 

 the immense sheet of ice which I mentioned as hav- 

 ing 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 pieces 

 kept together, in the expectation that the number 

 of seals frequenting it while it was fixed would not 

 forsake it. During the day Kennedy shot a fine 

 bull-walrus and two large seals upon some of the 

 fragments. I lost nearly the whole day following 



