We therefore stood on to the southward till the noon of the 10th, at which time we passed great quantities of drift-ice, and the wind fell to a perfect calm. The latitude by observation was 68° 1ʹ, longitude 188° 30ʹ. We passed several whales in the forenoon, and in the afternoon hoisted out the boats, and sent them in pursuit of the sea-horses, which were in great numbers on the pieces of ice that surrounded us. Our people were more successful than they had been before, returning with three large ones and a young one; besides killing and wounding several others. The gentlemen who went on this party were witnesses of several remarkable instances of parental affection in those animals. On the approach of our boats toward the ice, they all took their cubs under their fins, and endeavoured to escape with them into the sea. Several, whose young were killed or wounded and left floating on the surface, rose again and carried them down, sometimes just as our people were going to take them up into the boat; and might be traced bearing them to a great distance through the water, which was coloured with their blood: we afterward observed them bringing them at times above the surface, as if for air, and again diving under it with a dreadful bellowing. The female in particular whose young had been destroyed and taken into the boat, became so enraged that she attacked the cutter, and struck her two tusks through the bottom of it. At eight in the evening a breeze sprung up to the eastward, with which we still continued our course to the southward, and at twelve fell in with numerous large bodies of ice. We endeavoured to push through them with an easy sail, for fear of damaging the ship; and having got a little farther to the southward, nothing was to be seen but one compact field of ice, stretching to the south-west south-east and north-east, as far as the eye could reach. This unexpected and formidable obstacle put an end to Captain Clerke’s plan of visiting the Tschutski; for no space remained open but back again to the northward. Accordingly at three in the morning of the 11th, we tacked and stood to that quarter. At noon the latitude, by observation, was 67° 49ʹ, and longitude 188° 47ʹ.