wind the ice began to separate; and that setting all their sails, they
forced a passage through it. We learned farther, that whilst they were
encompassed by it, they found the ship drift with the main body to the
N.E., at the rate of half a mile an hour. We were sorry to find that the
Discovery had rubbed off a great deal of the sheathing from her bows, and
was become very leaky, from the strokes she had received when she fell upon
the edge of the ice.

On the 24th we had fresh breezes from the S.W., with hazy weather, and kept
running to the S.E. till eleven in the forenoon, when a large body of loose
ice, extending from N.N.E. round by the E., to S.S.E., and to which (though
the weather was tolerably clear) we could see no end, again obstructed our
course. We therefore kept working to windward, and at noon our latitude, by
observation, was 68° 53', longitude 188°; the variation of the compass 22°
30' E. At four in the afternoon it became calm, and we hoisted out the
boats in pursuit of the sea-horses, which were in prodigious herds on every
side of us. We killed ten of them, which were as many as we could make use
of for eating, or for converting into lamp-oil. We kept on with the wind
from the S.W., along the edge of the ice, which extended in a direction
almost due E. and W., till four in the morning of the 25th, when observing
a clear sea beyond it to the S.E., we made sail that way, with a view of
forcing through it. By six we had cleared it, and continued the remainder
of the day running to the S.E., without any ice in sight. At noon, our
latitude, by observation, was 68° 38', longitude 189° 9', and the depth of
water thirty fathoms. At midnight we tacked and stood to the westward, with
a fresh gale from the S.; and at ten in the forenoon, of the 26th, the ice
again shewed itself, extending from N.W. to S. It appeared loose, and
drifting by the force of the wind to the northward. At noon, our latitude,
by observation, was 68° N., longitude 188° 10' E.; and we had soundings
with twenty-eight fathoms. For the remaining part of the day, and till noon