more enlivening; for the sea was found to be navigable in a degree very
seldom experienced in these regions, and, the land trending two or three
points to the westward of north, gave us reason to hope we should now be
enabled to take a decided and final turn in that anxiously desired
direction. As we rounded Cape Penrhyn at seven P.M., we began gradually
to lose sight of the external body of ice, sailing close along that
which was still attached in very heavy floes to this part of the coast.
Both wind and tide being favourable, our progress was rapid, and
unobstructed, and nothing could exceed the interest and delight with
which so unusual an event was hailed by us. Before midnight the wind
came more off the land, and then became light and variable, after which
it settled in the northwest, with thick weather for several hours.

In the course of this day the walruses became more and more numerous
every hour, lying in large herds upon the loose pieces of drift-ice; and
it having fallen calm at one P.M., we despatched our boats to kill some
for the sake of the oil which they afford. On approaching the ice, our
people found them huddled close to, and even lying upon, one another, in
separate droves of from twelve to thirty, the whole number near the
boats being perhaps about two hundred..Most of them waited quietly to be
fired at: and even after one or two discharges did not seem to be
greatly disturbed, but allowed the people to land on the ice near them,
and, when approached, showed an evident disposition to give battle.
After they had got into the water, three were struck with harpoons and
killed from the boats. When first wounded they became quite furious, and
one, which had been struck from Captain Lyon's boat, made a resolute
attack upon her and injured several of the planks with its enormous
tusks. A number of the others came round them, also repeatedly striking
the wounded animals with their tusks, with the intention either of
getting them away, or else of joining in the attack upon them. Many of