170 GALE IN LANCASTEK SOUND. Chap. X. 



mense bear was shot ; he measured 8 feet 7 

 inches in length, and is destined for the museum 

 of the Eoyal Dublin Society. On the 7th the 

 wind gradually freshened and frustrated my 

 intention of examining the wreck spoken of 

 near Cape Hay ; at night it increased to a 

 very heavy gale. Although past Navy Board 

 Inlet, very little ice had yet been met with. 

 The weather, and fear of ice to leeward, 

 obliged us to heave the vessel to, under main 

 trysail and fore staysail. The squalls were ex- 

 tremely violent and seas unusually high. 



All Sunday, the 8th, the gale continued, al- 

 though not with such extreme force ; the deep 

 rolling of the ship, and moaning of the half- 

 drowned dogs amidst the pelting sleet and rain, 

 was anything but agreeable. Notwithstanding 

 that I had been up all the previous night, I felt 

 too anxious to sleep ; the wind blew directly 

 up Barrow Strait, drifting us about two miles an 

 hour. Occasionally she drifted to leeward of 

 masses of ice, reminding us that if any of the 

 dense pack which covered this sea only three 

 weeks ago remained to leeward of us, we must 

 be rapidly setting down upon its weather edge. 

 The only expedient in such a case is to endea- 

 vour to run into it — once well within its outer 

 margin a ship is comparatively safe — ^the danger 



