in getting the Hecla out of her confined situation, and
ran her up astern of the Griper. The clear water had made so much
to the westward, that a narrow neck of ice was all that was now
interposed between the ships and a large open space in that
quarter. Both ships' companies were therefore ordered upon the ice
to saw off the neck, when the floes suddenly opened sufficiently
to allow the Griper to push through under all sail. No time was
lost in the attempt to get the Hecla through after her; but, by
one of those accidents to which this navigation is liable, and
which render it so precarious and uncertain, a piece of loose ice,
which lay between the two ships, was drawn after the Griper by the
eddy produced by her motion, and completely blocked the narrow
passage through which we were about to follow. Before we could
remove this obstruction by hauling it back out of the channel, the
floes were again pressed together, wedging it firmly and immovably
between them: the saws were immediately set to work, and used with
great effect; but it was not till eleven o'clock that we
succeeded, after seven hours' labour, in getting the Hecla into
the lanes of clear water which opened more and more to the
westward.

On the 29th we had so much clear water, that the ships had a very
perceptible pitching motion, which, from the closeness of the ice,
does not very often occur in the Polar regions, and which is
therefore hailed with pleasure as an indication of an open sea. At
five P.M. the swell increased considerably, and, as the wind
freshened up from the northeast, the ice gradually disappeared; so
that by six o'clock we were sailing in an open sea, perfectly free
from obstruction of any kind.

We now seemed all at once to have got into the headquarters of the
whales. They were so numerous that I directed the number to be
counted during each watch, and no less than eighty-two are
mentioned in this day's log. Mr. Allison, the Greenland master,
considered them generally as large ones, and remarked that a fleet
of whalers might easily have obtained a cargo here in a few days.
In the afternoon the wind broke us of from the N.N.W., which
obliged us to cast off the Griper, and we carried all sail ahead
to make the land. We saw it at half past five P.M., being the high
land about Possession Bay, and at the same time several streams of
loose but heavy ice came in sight, which a fresh breeze was
drifting fast to the southeastward.

The w