CHAP. VI.] SPLENDID METEOR. 429 



sails, to lessen the violence of the shocks 

 unavoidably received. Some of these, indeed, 

 were sufficiently alarming to cause anxiety for 

 the safety of the rudder ; for, as we were in what 

 is called a loose pack, with no piece large 

 enough to make the ship fast to, she drifted 

 against them broadside on, and, drawing her 

 length along with much pressure under the 

 quarter, threw a powerful strain on the stern- 

 post. 



On August 5th, about c 2 h a. m., a splendid 

 comet-like meteor appeared in the south-east, 

 which darting from somewhere near the zenith in 

 a brilliant prismatic blaze, and, taking a direction 

 towards the horizon, burst about fifteen degrees 

 above it, and after scattering rays of beautiful 

 sparks, vanished altogether. Towards morning 

 a ground swell was felt, and the ice becoming 

 much slacker, and the wind lighter, ■ (though 

 still fresh), w r e made some way to the north, 

 having passed two large bergs, which the night 

 before were barely in sight. Green Island, too, 

 was distant and much refracted. We now, for 

 the first time since leaving Charles Island, got 

 into a space of eight or ten miles of open water, 

 and setting the main sail we beat to windward to 

 round a point of ice, which, how r ever, was not 

 effected by noon. The latitude was found to be 

 60° 54', and there seemed a reasonable proba- 



