142 
A VOYAGE TO SPITZBERGEN. 
and while one shot the animal, another harpooned it to 
prevent its being pushed aside by the anxious crowd of 
breathers. Dozens of both narwhals and white whales 
were killed, but many were lost before they were got 
home, the ice breaking up soon after. In the summer 
ensuing the natives found many of the dead washed 
up in the bays and inlets around. 
We have fine weather on the 24th, with a calm sea, 
and the atmosphere has a curious effect upon the 
scene, which is novel, and not without its meaning ; 
the clear water in the distance seems as if it was lifted 
up far above the level of the ice floating on the sea. 
This is the result of refraction, and the harpooners 
notice the fact, and say it is an indication of a north 
or north-eastern wind, which will have the effect of 
liberating us from our enforced captivity, caused by the 
crowding together of the ice, which has held us back 
for the last three days. 
Sure enough, the cold northern wind comes along, 
driving the ice before it; it slowly effects this change, 
and the packed ice gradually opens, and it requires all 
our skill to drive aside the immense floors of ice which 
threaten every moment to squeeze us between the 
contracting gaps. But the ice soon begins to stream 
off, and we begin to comprehend the vexed question of 
currents flowing south, and the influence, of the winds 
