132 THE ICE DISPERSES. 



CHAP. IX. 



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

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

 tracted by "Whistling. — Glaciers on the Coast. — Noises 

 from them. — Submarine Bank. — Shooting Walruses.-— 

 Walruses fighting. — Walrus Tusks. — Awkward Cus- 

 tomer. — Ivory. — Story of Mermaids. — Osteological 

 Peculiarity. — Cook loses his Watch. — Shoot a Bear. — 

 Cold Bath. 



While this bear cTiasse 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 ajapears 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 



