CHAPTER XIX.
Revisit Victoria Bay—Packed Ice setting in the Sound—Detention and Difficult Escape—Return to the Whaling Dépôt—Joyous News from the Ship—All Hands summoned on Board—Great Excitement—Adieu to Bear Sound, Lupton Channel, and French Head—Arrival on Board—The Ship free from Ice—Preparations for Sailing—August 9th, 1862, the "George Henry" lifts Anchor, and gets under way for Home—Friendly Adieux to the Natives—Once more at Sea—First Sign of Civilization for Twenty Months—Newfoundland—Pilot comes on Board—First News of the War—Kindly Reception at St, John's—Arrival at New London—Conclusion.
I will here give a few brief extracts from my journal, written while stopping at Cape True, commencing with—
"Thursday, July 31st, 1862.—One year ago to-day the George Henry broke out of her ice-prison. This morning. Mates Rogers, Gardiner, and Lamb, with their three boats and crews, went out in the Bay—Frobisher Bay—after walrus. A short time after they left a thick fog set in, and the tide carried them up opposite Countess Warwick's Sound before they were aware of it. After the lighting up of the fog a little, they fell in with a shoal of walrus, of which they harpooned three large ones. This walrus party returned at 3 p.m. with three tons of fresh meat. There is no place in the world where a "living" is obtained with less work than here. These three walruses added make the whole number forty that have been taken since the George Henry's company first came here this season, not including some two or three young ones.
"Friday, August 1st.—And still, as we learn, the George Henry is fast in the ice. Anxious are all of us to depart for the States, but King Ice will not yet let us go. A good 'nor'wester' would drive away the pack which presses so closely and so unrelentingly the west side of Davis's Strait, and allow the ice which holds dominion over the George Henry's pathway to the sea to give way. It may be the pack
