Page:Journal of a Voyage to Greenland, in the Year 1821.djvu/212

160 The fog having continued without abatement yesterday, now gradually changed from the densest mist into the clearest sky. The whole of this day, we continued to sail to windward, with a fresh breeze from the south-east, to keep clear of the heavy bodies of ice, that had so long interrupted us; until, at length, at four o'clock in the afternoon, we could proceed no further for these frozen impediments: we were therefore obliged to retrace our steps, as the only means of seeking some new lead to clear us from the entanglement of those compact bodies of ice that were surrounding us. In the evening I two arctic gulls pursue a kittywake, in as systematic a mode of attack as I ever beheld in the flight of the best trained hawks after a heron.

The fog, returning during the night, added to the very cross pieces and heavy floes of ice that were continually coming in our way, increased the impediments which opposed our getting near the verge of the ice, or boundary called the sea stream, as we were desirous to do in the prosecution of our design of gaining a situation more favourable for fishing. It may be interesting here to give some idea of the obstructions, and the great increase of ice with which we had to contend above what is usually found. The Baffin last year left the west ice, came through that expansive body stretching from east to west in forty-eight hours, and met with very little interruption. We had now been fourteen days making every