14 
VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 
1819. his paw upon the gunwale, which they generally endeavour to do ; whereas, 
with our boats, which are more light and crank, and therefore very easily 
heeled over, I have mbre than once seen a bear on the point of taking pos- 
session of them. Great caution should, therefore, be used under such circum- 
stances in attacking these ferocious creatures. We have always found a board- 
ing-pike the most useful weapon for this purpose. The lance used by the 
whalers will not easily penetrate the skin, and a musket-ball, except when 
very close, is scarcely more efficacious. 
We sounded at noon in two hundred and two fathoms, being in lat, by ac- 
count, 69° 24' 40", long. 58° 16' 42", without making any allowance for the 
current, which, for the three preceding days, appeared to have been setting 
the ships to the S.S.E., at the rate of from eight to thirteen miles per day. 
In the afternoon, on the clearing up of the fog, we found ourselves so sur- 
rounded by ice, in every direction, that it became necessary to stretch to the 
eastward, to avoid the risk of being again beset, a circumstance which might 
have occasioned a serious loss of time. A great number of seals were seen as 
we sailed through the ice, but very seldom two together. 
Mon. 12. The weather was again so thick on the 12th, that we could seldom see above 
three or four hundred yards. The sun being visible, however, Captain Sabine 
and myself left the ship, and ascended an iceberg, in order to obtain the me- 
ridian altitude, which gave us the lat. of 69° 42' 43", and which was 8' 20" 
to the southward of the dead reckoning, our longitude, by account, being 
57° 46' 13". Streams of the purest water were flowing from this berg, a luxury 
not so often enjoyed by seamen in any other navigation, and which is, per- 
haps, of essential importance in the preservation of health, were scurvy is the 
disease most to be apprehended. The fog froze so hard upon the sails and 
rigging during the night, that I believe some tons were shaken off in the 
Tues. 13. morning, to enable us to handle the ropes, and to work the ship with greater 
facility. The fields of ice and the icebergs must occasionally, during the 
summer, receive a considerable addition by this kind of deposit. Of the lat- 
ter when the fog had cleared away for a short time in the evening, we counted 
no less than sixty-two of large dimensions, at no great distance from us, be- 
sides a number of smaller ones. We were, at noon, in lat. by account, 70° 06' 32", 
and in long. 57° 33' 56", having a hundred and forty-seven fathoms’ water, on 
a muddy bottom. 
Wed. 14. The weather continued so foggy on the 14th, that very little progress could 
be made. We caught some fine specimens of the Clio Borealis, called by the 
