CHAPTER IX.
A Barren Shore, and a Strange Animal, which is captured by blowing up its Den .-- Palmleaf falls in with the Esquimaux, and is chased by them.--"_Twau-ve!_"-- "A Close Shave."-- An Attack threatened .-- The Savages dispersed with the Howitzer.
To avoid the thick patches of heavy ice which were this afternoon driving out toward the Atlantic, we bore up quite near the mainland on the north side, and continued beating on, with the wind north all night, at the rate of--at a guess--two knots per hour.

It was dull work.

We turned in at twelve, and slept soundly till five, when the noisy rattling of the cable through the hawse aroused us.

The wind had died out, and they had dropped the anchor in forty-three fathoms.

It was a cloudy morning: every thing had a leaden, dead look.