me season last year it rose no
higher than 32 deg. anywhere in the neighbourhood, and remained even so
high as that only for a very short time. This circumstance seemed to
indicate the total absence of ice from those parts of the sea which had
last autumn been wholly covered by it. Accordingly, on the 5th, being
thirty miles beyond the spot in which we had before contended with
numerous difficulties from ice, not a piece was to be seen, except one
or two solitary bergs; and it was not till the following day, in latitude
72 deg. 45', and longitude 64 deg. 44', or about one hundred and
twenty-seven miles to the eastward of where we made our escape on the 9th
of September, 1824, that we fell in with a body of ice so loose and open
as scarcely to oblige us to alter our course for it. At three P.M. on the
7th, being in latitude 72 deg. 30', and longitude 60 deg. 05', and
having, in the course of eighty miles that we had run through it, only
made a single tack, we came to the margin of the ice, and got into an
open sea on its eastern side. In the whole course of this distance, the
ice was so much spread that it would not, if at all closely "packed,"
have occupied one third of the same space. There were at this time
thirty-nine bergs in sight, and some of them certainly not less than two
hundred feet in height.

On the 8th, being in latitude 71 deg. 55', longitude 60 deg. 30', and
close to the margin of the ice, we fell in with the Alfred, Ellison, and
Elizabeth, whalers, of Hull, all running to the northward, even at this
season, to look for whales.

As the whaling-ships were not homeward bound, having as yet had
indifferent success in the fishery, I did not consider it necessary to
send despatches by them. After an hour's communication with them, and
obtaining such information of a public nature as could not fail to be
highly interesting to us, we made sail to the southward; while we
observed them lying to for some time after, probably to consult
respecting the unwelcome information with which we had furnished them as
to the whales, not one of which, by some extraordinary chance, we had
seen since leaving Neill's Harbour. As this circumstance was entirely
new to us, it seems not unlikely that the whales are already beginning
to shift their ground, in consequence of the increased attacks which
have been made upon them of late years in that neighbourhood.

On the 10th we had an easterly wind, which, gradually freshening to a