88 
SLOW PROGRESS. 
of Baffin's Bay, well called the Ivory (Larus eburne- 
us). It is a singularly beautiful bird, so faultless in its 
purity of white as to be descried with difficulty on the 
surface of the snow. The legs, which are deep black, 
are all that you see at a little distance. A specimen 
shot a few days afterward had numerous ash-colored 
spots on the wings and shoulders, perhaps immature \ 
markings. 
" In addition to the Ivory, I have noticed, since our 
entry into the pack, the Silvery and Burgomaster gulls 
(L. argentatus and L. glaucus), but the kittiwakes 
[L. tridactylus) have disappeared. The mollemokes 
are still abundant. Tw^o terns, one the Sterna arctica, 
the other unrecognized, with a solitary Lestris [L. par- 
asitica), complete our catalogue of birds. 
" The Aneroid index now stands at 29° 05', correct- 
ed — lower than it has been since leaving New York. 
12. The changes in the ice since dinner have 
been such as to invite us to renewed exertion. They 
were indeed protean ; the pack was not the same for 
ten minutes together. Go below, congratulating your- 
self on the headway you are making, and when you 
come back you are hopelessly ' fast.' Go down again 
to chronicle your vexation, and you are surrounded by 
open leads before you have put away your journal. 
Stranger still is the uncertain influence of warping. 
A single whale-line will sometimes force the brig into 
a barely perceptible crevice, enlarging it into a ' track- 
able' canal, while in another attempt a four-inch 
hawser will be stranded without producing the slight- 
est effect. 
" This afternoon before we began our work, except 
that the water-pools had become larger and more fre- 
quent, you would not at first glance have detected any 
