156 RAPID MOTION OF THE ICE. 



I looked down into the Terror's main-top. One 

 of the crew saw some fish in the water which 

 he described to be as large as salmon, but we 

 were unable to set lines, owing to the overlap- 

 ping of the ice below the surface. 



November 28th. There had been a dark 

 steel- coloured sky, extending from about Winter 

 Island to the situation of Repulse Bay, so ex- 

 actly resembling that which indicates open 

 water, that we could not forbear imagining 

 the ice in the centre of the Welcome to have 

 broken up. That some such occurrence must 

 have taken place was indeed evident, for the ice 

 was now perpetually in motion, and we were 

 driven occasionally five or seven miles. A 

 strange refraction of the horizon to the north 

 was remarked about sunrise, or rather when the 

 sun was seen just above the south-eastern hills. 

 At the part to the north the sky was a dark 

 grey, and the icy horizon appeared in detached 

 horizontal lines at a very acute angle. The 

 temperature fell to 1G° — , with a moderate 

 wind from the westward. Without much vari- 

 ation in the state of the weather, a very sensible 

 diminution was brought about on the edge 

 of the floe by the successive action of the in- 

 shore ice against it. But as the temperature 

 had fallen to 30°— of Pastorelli's thermometer, 



