134 POT 600 LBS. OF BEAES'-GREASE. 



we may hope to fall in with walruses to- 

 morrow. 



25^A. — South-east wind and thick fog in the 

 mornin^:. We saw four old bull-wabuses on 

 the ice, but the sloop had run so close to them 

 in the mist that it disturbed them, and they 

 did not wait for a boat to be lowered. 



Taking advantage of the fog all hands are 

 busy flensing and packing blubber. This is a 

 horribly wet, dirty, cold, and greasy operation, 

 and is generally held on the part of the crcAV 

 as constituting a claim to a bottle of rum. 

 There is only one teetotaller amongst them, and 

 I think he is about the hardest fellow of the 

 lot — Abraham, the steersman of my boat. 



The old she-bear is very lean and poor ; but 

 the three last killed, including her, yield alto- 

 gether about 600 lbs. of fat. Corpo di Bacco ! 

 what a thousand pities it is not worth 3s. Qd. 

 a-pot, as in the Burlington Arcade ! 



It is impossible to dry skins here, so the bear 

 skins are thickly sprinkled inside with salt and 

 wood ashes, and then rolled up into bundles 

 and tightly corded. The seal and walrus hides 

 are stowed loosely on the top of the casks in 

 the hold. 



We attempted to get through the passage 



