wrenched from their bolts and partly separated from the 
wood on the port-bow. 
The Laura beginning to take water at the rate of a foot 
an hour now, double forces were necessary at the pumps, 
while we lightened the ship forward, so as to raise her suf¬ 
ficiently to permit the carpenters to stop the leak. 
Even then, the patch hindered our passage through some 
heavy packs near the coast, and we might ultimately have 
achieved our goal but for this. On the 17th we left this shel¬ 
tered bay, slowly making our way west. 
THE SHIP TOOK ON WATER 
Seal varied the day’s program, Learmonth bringing down 
a hooded male—an ugly, fierce-looking brute, spotted black 
upon dark-gray, and over eight feet long. This seal, (CjSsto- 
phora cristata ) is a ferocious brute, splashing and quite apt 
to attack and even bite its pursuers, if wounded. The females 
of this variety resemble the male, but possess no hood. 
In the afternoon, anchored to a floe four hundred and fifty 
feet across, we took water and indulged in skee practice, the 
latter in preparation for future use. Meanwhile, currents 
caused the ice to move so rapidly that, of a sudden, we found 
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