About
midday
January 17 . -- This day was full of incident . Innumerable flights of birds flew over us from the southward , and several were shot from the deck , one of them , a species of pelican , proved to be excellent eating . About midday a small floe of ice was seen from the masthead off the larboard bow , and upon it there appeared to be some large animal . As the weather was good and nearly calm , Captain Guy ordered out two of the boats to see what it was . Dirk Peters and myself accompanied the mate in the larger boat . Upon coming up with the floe , we perceived that it was in the possession of a gigantic creature of the race of the Arctic bear , but far exceeding in size the largest of these animals .