48 CANINE APPETITE. Chap. III. 



ISth. — Thermometer has fallen to 17° at noon. 

 "We have drifted 18 miles to the W. in the last 

 week ; therefore our neighbours the icebergs are 

 not always aground, but even when afloat drift 

 more slowly than the light ice. There is a 

 water-sky to the W. and N.W. ; it is nearest 

 to us in the direction of Cape York : could we 

 only advance 12 or 15 miles in that direction, 

 I am convinced we should he free to steer for 

 Barrow Strait. Forty-three seals have been 

 secured for the dogs ; one dog is missing, the 

 remaining twenty-nine devoured their two days' 

 allowance of seal's flesh (60 or 65 lbs.) in forty- 

 two seconds! it contained no bone, and had 

 been cut up into small pieces, and spread out 

 upon the snow, before they were permitted to 

 rush to dinner ; in this way the weak enjoy a 

 fair chance, and there is no time for fighting. 

 We do not allow them on board. 



16/7i. — At length we have drifted past the 

 large icebergs, obtaining soundings in 69 fa- 

 thoms within a mile of them ; they must now 

 be aground, and have frequently been so during 

 the last three weeks; and being directly upon 

 our line of drift, are probably the immediate 

 cause of our still remaining in Melville Bay. 

 The ice is slack everywhere, but the temperature 

 having fallen to 3°, new ice rapidly forms, so 



