430 DARK-COLOURED BERGS. [CHAP.VI. 



bility of getting still more to the north, which I 

 considered the only certain way of avoiding the 

 southerly set, and accomplishing a speedy pass- 

 age out of the Strait. Easterly winds must have 

 been unusually prevalent hereabouts, since a 

 large proportion of the heavy ice, recently 

 encountered, was decidedly the produce of the 

 deep bays and inlets in the neighbourhood of 

 Davis's Strait, as was evident from their 

 weather-beaten form, and the difference of colour, 

 which was of a purer white and deeper blue 

 than what we had been accustomed to. In addi- 

 tion to these, there were the bergs spreading at 

 every point, but which, with a northerly or west- 

 erly wind, would, long before this time, have been 

 far on their journey towards the banks of New- 

 foundland or the Gulf Stream. After three or 

 four tacks we reached open water at 6 h p. m., at 

 which time Green Island was but just in sight, 

 and the north shore, with Button's isles on 

 the other side, soon came into view. The 

 wind having abated, all sail was crowded on 

 the ship, and at 8 h r. m., there were but three 

 or four bergs and some straggling streams of ice 

 to be seen, while a peculiar gloom of a leaden 

 grey tinge, the effect of a dark sky on open 

 water, seemed, to eyes inured to a twelvemonth's 

 glare of Polar ice, unusually dull and heavy. 

 But it had not power to damp the joy that 



