302 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



Auovts aS ^ ie ^ ^ a( ^ & enera % been our companions in most other parts of the polar 

 v-*-W regions that we had visited. We had to-day, for the first time this sum- 

 mer, seen a number of white whales (delphimis albicans) near the ice ; but 

 found them as usual so extremely wary as to elude every endeavour to 

 strike them, though the boats frequently made the attempt, this being the 

 only large sea-animal inhabiting these regions which we had never yet 

 taken. 



Tues, 6. On the forenoon of the 6th a halo was observed round the sun, and on 

 the eastern side of it a slightly-coloured parhelion, distant from the sun 



Wed. 7. 24°. 17. Some water, brought up on the 7th, from sixty fathoms or near the 

 bottom, was at the temperature of 31°. 6, that of the surface being 31°. 3, 

 and of the air 35°. As soon as we had completed the stowage of the blub- 

 ber, and washed the ships and people's clothes, we cast off^ taking in tow 

 the carcass of the whale (technically called the " crang") for our friends at 

 Igloolik, and with the intention also of looking for the buoy that had been 

 laid down in that neighbourhood. In the latter attempt we again failed, 

 the buoy having probably been swept away by the drift-ice ; nor could we 

 afterwards hit upon the exact spot where the attraction on the needles had 

 been observed. The wind dying away when the ships were off the north- 

 east end of the island, the boats were despatched to tow the whale on 

 shore, while Captain Lyon and myself went a-head to meet some of the 

 canoes that were paddling towards us. We soon joined eleven of them, and 

 on our informing the Esquimaux of the prize the boats were bringing them, 

 they paddled off with great delight. When they arrived at the spot and 

 had civilly asked permission to eat some of it, they dropped their canoes 

 astern to the whale's tail, from which they cut off enormous lumps of flesh 

 and ravenously devoured it ; after which they followed our boats in-shore, 

 where the carcass was made fast to a mass of grounded ice for their future 

 disposal. In the mean time Captain Lyon and myself had rowed up to the 

 station formerly occupied by the tents, which however we now found wholly 

 deserted by the natives, who had left only a sledge or two, and a quantity of 

 blubber here and there under the stones before used for the tents. 



Thur. 8. A fresh breeze having sprung up from the southward, we stood off and 

 on for the night, and on the 8th again made the ice, in which no change 

 was perceptible. We hoped however that some service would be done us 

 by the swell, though its effects would only be rendered apparent when 

 the wind veered to the westward. This taking place on the following 



