PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
271 
had eluded their efforts, but the carcass was not yet “ too high” for CHAP, 
an Esquimaux palate, and would, no doubt, ere long, be either washed 
upon the shore, or discovered by some of the many wandering baidars August, 
along the coast. 
Some very extensive flocks of eider ducks had also been seen from 
the ship. They consisted entirely of females and young ones, the 
greater part of which could not fly, but they nevertheless contrived to 
evade pursuit by diving. 
On the morning of the 10th we were under treble-reefed topsails 
and foresail, with a short head sea, in which we pitched away the jib- 
boom. W e had a thick fog, with the wind at N. N. E. A little after 
noon, being in lat. 70° 09' N., and 165° 10' W., we had twenty-four 
fathoms hard bottom: we then stood toward the shore, and again 
changed the bottom to mud, the depth of water gradually decreasing. 
On the 11th it was calm ; by the observations at noon there had 
been a current to the S. W., but this had now ceased, as upon trial it 
ran w^est one-third of a mile per hour, and three hours afterward N. E. 
live-eighths per hour, which appeared to be the regular tide. In the 
evening the wind again blew from the northward, and brought a thick 
fog with it. We stood off and on, guided by the soundings. 
In the morning of the 12th we saw a great many birds, walrusses, 
and small white whales ; from which I concluded that we were near a 
stream of ice, but only one piece was seen in the evening aground. We 
tacked not far from it in ten fathoms. As we stood in shore, the tem- 
perature of the sea always decreased ; the effect, probably, of the rivers 
of melting snow mingling with it. 
As it was impossible to determine the continuity of coast, with 
the weather so thick, farther than by the gradual decrease of the 
soundings, I stood to the northward to ascertain the position of the 
ice, the wind having changed to E. N. E. and become favourable for 
the purpose. At eight o’clock in the morning of the 13th, the fog 
cleared off, and exhibited the main body of ice extending from N. 79° E. 
to S. 29 W. (true). At nine we tacked amongst the brash, in twenty- 
three fathoms water, in lat. 71° 08' N., long. 163° 40' W. The wind 
Was blowing along the ice, and the outer part of the pack was in 
