324 
LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. 
and brought on board with us a load of driftwood, to serve 
hereafter as Christmas yule-logs—we bade an eternal 
adieu to the silent hills around us ; and weighing anchor, 
stood out to sea. For some hours a lack of wind still 
left us hanging about the shore, in the midst of a grave 
society of seals ; but soon after, a gentle breeze sprang 
up in the South, and about three o’clock on Friday, the 
11 th of August, we again found ourselves spanking 
along before a six-knot breeze, over the pale green 
sea. 
In considering the course on which I should take the 
vessel home, it appeared to me that in all probability 
we should have been much less pestered by the ice on 
our way to Spitzbergen, if, instead of hugging the 
easterly ice, we had kept more away to the westward ; 
I determined therefore—as soon as we got clear of the 
land—to stand right over to the Greenland shore, on 
a due West course, and not to attempt to make any 
southing, until we should have struck the Greenland 
ice. The length of our tether in that direction being 
ascertained, we could then judge of the width of the 
channel down which we were to beat, for it was still 
blowing pretty fresh from the southward. 
