74 
GREENLAND VOYAGE. 
standing all my endeavours, I could not discover 
it; nor were the researches of parties of men that 
were sent over the ice in various directions, more 
successful. After it had dragged above a mile and 
a-half of line out of the boat from whence it was 
struck, and struggled for its liberty for almost 
twelve hours, the harpoon at length gave way, and 
the fish escaped us ; but whether living or dead, 
we could not tell. 
Attempting now to leave the contracted bay 
which we had entered, in pursuit of this whale, 
a breeze sprung up from the south-east, and set 
the ice so rapidly upon us, that before we could 
beat out, two floes came in contact and cut off* our 
retreat. As the floes continued to approximate 
with a velocity of upwards of a mile an hour, it 
was not without difficulty that we reached a small 
clear pool of water, about two furlongs in diame¬ 
ter, without receiving a squeeze from the ice-. 
Here we moored the ship to a sheet of bay-ice, 
connected with one of the floes, which appeared to 
be the least dangerous part of the opening, in case 
of a second crush. We had not been long at rest, 
before two whales arose near us, and one of them 
received a harpoon. It only “ ran out” four lines 
(480 fathoms), and then, very fortunately for us, 
came up in the middle of the little lake wherein 
the boats were dispersed: three more harpoons 
