62 QUIN. [April 28, 1856. 



the current from Baffin Bay, that runs southwards along the coast 

 of Labrador. Commodore Irminger bases his arguments upon quota- 

 tions from the logs of twenty voyages ; by which he determines the limits 

 of the ice carried by the current. He also remarks that the existence 

 of this ice is well known to the captains of Danish vessels, who habitually 

 shape their course so as to avoid it. 



Mr. a. G. FiNDf-AY, F.R.G.S., Said, that the only traveller who had given any 

 information as to the currents on the S.E. coast of Greenland, from personal 

 observation, was Captain Graah, of the Danish Nav}^, in 1829-30. He particu- 

 larly mentions* that no current is observable on the shore, but that outside the 

 vast accumulation of ice which is pressed on to it, there is a set to the S.W. : 

 this, however, he states from other authority. That there is a set from the 

 N.E. towards Cape Farewell can scarcely be doubted, from the facts of the 

 drift of the wreck from the Dutch fleet in 1777 f and other vessels in that 

 direction ; but this may be caused by a temporary and not a permanent cur- 

 rent between Iceland and Greenland. 



There are one or two circumstances which bear strongly on the subject, and 

 corroborate the views of Commodore Irminger. A plank of mahogany was 

 drifted to Disco many years ago, and was formed into a table for the Danish 

 governor of Greenland at Holsteinborg.t Admiral Lowenbrn also picked up a 

 worm-eaten mahogany log off the S.E. coast of Greenland. The inference is that 

 these came from the S.W., from the West Indies ; and their course will con- 

 firm the facts quoted by the author. This current round Cape Farewell to the 

 W. and N. has been described by Sir James Ross, § Dr. Kane, and other later 

 voyagers, but the present paper threw great light on its character. 



2. Letter upon the Bonin Islands, from Captain Quin, r.n., f.r.g.s., 

 to the Admiral in command of the India Station. 



Captain Quin visited these islands, in command of H.M.S. ' Raleigh/ 

 in 1837. He found the inscription left in 1827 by the President (then 

 Captain Beechey, in command of H.M.S. ' Blossom ') on Peel Island, 

 when he took formal possession of the group. Captain Quin's letter 

 gives a succinct account of what had befallen the islands since that time. 

 In 1830, they were first settled under the British flag ; and, up to Captain 

 Quin's visit, nine vessels (seven of which were English) had touched at 

 them, and lost a few deserters out of their crews. In 1837, Captain Quin 

 erected a substantial flag-staff on Peel Island. He found there much 

 cultivation of all kinds of produce. There was an abundance of pigs, 

 and some of these, as well as goats and poultry, had run wild and mul- 

 tiplied in the woods. The island was well timbered, and free from snakes 

 and other noxious animals. Not the least vestige of previous occupa- 

 tion had been discovered by the settlers. 



* Narrative, &c., pp. 113, 114. 



t Capt. W. Scoresby, ' An Account,' &c., pp. 216, 217. [Commodore Irminger 

 quotes the ' Accounts of the Whalers in 1777, by Larens Hansen, Director of the 

 School of Vibe,' — a town in Denmark. — Ed.] 



X ' Quarterly Review,' No. 36. 



§ Vide Captain Graah's Narrative, p. 24, &c. 



