VIII.] PLEASURE OF ATTACKING WALRUSES.

179

"It is extremely diverting to attack, or be attacked, by these animals on the ice, their favourite place, for they are always sure in the latter end to come by the lee !

"At two o'clock on the afternoon of the 29th,

we had advanced a good way into the ice which, though loose, was extremely thick. We were obliged, as usual, to keep the ship under an easy sail so as to lessen the blows she received every minute.

"One of these was so great as to be near

180 SPECIMENS FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY. [CHAP.

tearing the best bower anchor from the bows. 'Twas a lucky circumstance the ship was built so strong, else the ice must have made its appearance through the bottom long before

this time.

'The ice we met here appeared to be the main body, and although we were desirous of passing between it and the land, there was no appearance, from our mastheads, of anything like a strait for us to go through. Indeed, the ice had so beset the eastern land as to leave us no room to go between them

"A large trawl was put over with the intention to catch fish, but there must have been none, for we found none in it after dragging it astern. of us for two hours. It brought up, however, some curious stones, coral, rock and seaweed, which the captain kept for the Royal Society, amongst his other curiosities.

It does not appear by any of the accounts of Spitzbergen, that any fish, the large ones excepted, were ever caught or even seen in this country.

VIII.]

AN ICEBERG PASSED.

181

"Whilst the passage to the eastward was thus shut up to us, and as no straits appeared, we could do nothing but sail to and fro to wait for an alteration in the ice. This time we converted to the best advantage by making astronomical observations, whilst we could see proper constellations.

the

'We determined, with exactitude, the latitude to be 80° 26', and the variation of the compass as 11° 49′ west.

"In the morning we passed the highest piece of ice we had yet seen, which, from its separation from the main body, we called an island.

Being nearly calm we had but a small opportunity of exploring the ice, but we saw enough of the land to be able to determine that what we had previously taken for the Seven Islands was nothing more than the main land separated, in as many places, by fog.

Sliding along the edge of the ice, very close to it, we perceived two large sea-horses seemingly asleep, whose tusks looked of an

uncommon brightness and size. A boat was hoisted out, and I made one of the party to go after them. We had not reached within thirty yards of them before we perceived that they heard us coming, for they very hastily jumped into the water and disappeared.

"There was at this time scarcely a breath of wind, and it was a remarkably fine sun-shining night, without the least appearance of a fog, or of anything that could make it dangerous for us to row to an island, which appeared to be only a mile and a half distance, where we supposed it very likely that we should have a good deal of sport.

"We had rowed very nearly double that distance when we heard the Racehorse fire a gun, but we were at too great a distance to discover whether there was any signal out for us to come on board.

Rowing up to the island we perceived a large sea-horse lying, apparently, asleep on a piece of ice. Approaching cautiously, we fired; the monster, being badly wounded, floundered into

VIII.]

FEROCIOUS ATTACK.

183

the water and dived, but immediately reappearing on the surface, accompanied by a number of others, attacked our boat with great ferocity. "So vigorous was their assault that they actually succeeded in wresting an oar out of the

hands of one of the men, and it was with the greatest difficulty we prevented them from either staving or upsetting the boat.

We should have been in a sorry way, if our