The rain continued so hard at our usual time of setting out, that I was
obliged to delay doing so till six P.M. on the 8th, when it ceased a
little, after falling hard for twenty-four hours, and less violently for
twelve more. When we first launched the boats, our prospect of making
progress seemed no better than usual, but we found one small hole of
water leading into another in so extraordinary a manner, that, though
the space in which we were rowing seemed always to be coming to an end,
we continued to creep through narrow passages, and, when we halted to
dine at half an hour before midnight, had only hauled the boats up once,
and had made, though by a winding channel, four or five miles of
southing. This was so unusual a circumstance, that we could not help
entertaining some hope of our being at no great distance from the open
sea, which seemed the more probable from our having seen seven or eight
narwhals, and not less than two hundred rotges, a flock of these little
birds occurring in every hole of water. At noon on the 10th of August,
we observed in latitude 81 deg. 40' 13", which was only four miles to the
northward of our reckoning from the last observation, although there had
been almost constantly southing in the wind ever since, and it had been
blowing strong from that quarter for the last thirty hours.
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