CHAP. VI.] REFRACTION OF OBJECTS. 4 c 2l 



July 28th brought no difference in our pro- 

 spects, except indeed the unwonted presence, at 

 this season of the year, of no fewer than nine or 

 ten large bergs, the produce of Davis's Straits, 

 proving the prevalence of easterly winds from 

 seaward, although of late we had experienced 

 westerly ones in Hudson's Strait. Bergs of 

 this description are always described, by those 

 employed in the Greenland fishery, to ' hold,' 

 as it is termed, a great deal of water ; but every 

 one of these, so far as could be discerned from 

 the mast-head, was hemmed tightly round with 

 ice, nor was water visible in any point of the 

 compass, with the single exception of a narrow 

 lane towards the Labrador shore. At noon the 

 centre of Long Island bore S. W. There 

 was, and had been for two days, considerable 

 refraction of objects. The ship did not go her 

 own length ahead, by any power derived 

 from her sails, and at night the ice was unusually 

 close-packed ; but what most astonished us 

 was a gentle swell, which perceptibly agitated 

 the whole body around us, and indicated the 

 neighbourhood of open water, disturbed by strong 

 easterly winds ; so that, having, in a manner, 

 exhausted the fine westerly breeze which had 

 brought us thus far through the seemingly end- 

 less nuisance (for it was now one year since we 

 first encountered it), our ship gently drifted to 



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