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VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 
1820. went into the ravine in which it stands, they were so fierce in defence of 
their young, that it was scarcely safe to approach them till a few shots had 
been fired. 
Sun. 6. Besides a number of gulls, Captain Sabine and his party brought with 
them ten hares, which, together with what we had obtained as we came 
along the land, furnished us with a fresh meal for the whole crew. Captain 
Sabine also brought me word from Lieutenant Liddon that the Griper was in 
a situation exactly similar to that of the Hecla, where “ nipping” appeared 
unavoidable if the floes should come in. The ice remained quiet, however, 
about the Hecla during the day, even though a strong breeze freshened 
up from the E.S.E., with continued snow; a circumstance which, while it 
added to our present security, did not give us very flattering hopes that there 
could be any room for the ice to drift to the westward. In the course of the 
evening I heard again from the Griper, Lieutenant Liddon informing me that 
the floes had once come in towards her, so as to lift her two feet out of 
the water, and then retired without doing any damage. I acquainted 
Lieutenant Liddon with the similarity of our situation to his, and desired 
him not to join us at present, even should the ice open sufficiently to allow 
him to do so ; for there was not room for the two ships where the Hecla was 
lying, and the chances of saving one of them from the catastrophe we had 
reason to apprehend, were greater by their being separate. At eleven P.M. a 
narrow lane of water opened near the Griper, extending about three miles to 
the S.S.W. ; near us it had also slackened a little about midnight, but it would 
have been difficult to find a “ hole” of water in which a boat could have floated, 
more than three hundred yards beyond the ship. 
Mon. 7. On the morning of the 7th, a black whale ( Balcena Mysticetus), came up 
close to the Hecla, being the first we had seen since the 22d of August the 
preceding year, about the longitude of 91°| W. ; it therefore acquired among 
us the distinctive appellation of the whale. Since leaving Winter Harbour, 
we had also, on two or three occasions, seen a solitary seal. The wind con- 
tinued fresh from the east and E.N.E. in the morning, and the loose ice came 
close in upon us, but the main body remained stationary at the distance of 
nearly half a mile. Considering that it might be of service to know the 
state of the ice further to the south and west than the view from the Hecla’s 
mast-head would allow us, I despatched Lieutenant Beechey with one 
of the marines, along the top of the hills to the westward, for that pur- 
pose. At two P.M., he returned with a fawn, which gave us thirty-eight 
