While the calm and thick weather lasted, a number of the officers
and men amused themselves in the boats, in endeavouring to kill
some of the white whales which were swimming about the ships in
great numbers; but the animals were so wary, that they would
scarcely suffer the boats to approach them within thirty or forty
yards without diving. Mr. Fisher described them to be generally
from eighteen to twenty feet in length; and he stated that he had
several times heard them emit a shrill, ringing sound, not unlike
that of musical glasses when badly played; This sound, he farther
observed, was most distinctly heard when they happened to swim
directly beneath the boat, even when they were several feet under
water, and ceased altogether on their coming to the surface. We
saw also, for the first time, one or two shoals of narwhals,
called by the sailors sea-unicorns.
A steady breeze springing up from the W.N.W. in the afternoon, the
ships stood to the northward till we had distinctly made out that
no passage to the westward could at present be found between the
ice and the land. The weather having become clear about this time,
we perceived that there was a large open space to the southward,
where no land was visible; and for this opening, over which there
was a dark water-sky, our course was now directed.
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