DIFFICULTIES IN NARROW WATERS. 
213 
Lancaster Sound are often subjected to accidents of 
this kind, and often experience like dangers further 
south. Should a vessel be crossing Melville Bay, in 
Davis’s Straits, in a southerly gale, she is most liable 
to suffer some such nip, if she is fortunate to escape 
worse treatment from the ice. On this account we 
believe the insurance offices do not take up policies for 
this expedition. Old men tell of many a good ship’s hull 
now lying in Melville Bay, whose object was, if possible, 
to escape the dangers that there beset them on their way 
north into Pond’s Bay. Beyond these straits, again, 
-other and as terrible dangers await the Arctic explorer. 
In comparison with these trials, our own seem 
almost insignificant ; but nevertheless we had severe 
difficulties to contend with until the 29th. We had 
certainly some good chances of following up our 
Arctic field-sports, which we were not slow to set 
-about when the opportunities offered. Our success is 
not worthy of being recorded, although it gave us 
much occupation. The seals were harder to kill than 
the west ice-seal ( Phoca Groenlandica) we had been 
first introduced to. These fellows were laden with 
blubber, and gave only the poorest chance, as their 
fat sides and their small heads present a difficult 
object for a floating marksman. As the day wears on, 
our ship gets clear, and a breeze springs up from the 
