330 VOYAGE TO THE 



chap, usually obtains in the vicinity or to leeward of land 

 +> in these seas, and entered a thick fog. With the 



S'. summer characteristics of this latitude — fine wea- 

 ther and a thick fog — we advanced to the north- 

 ward, attended by a great many birds, nearly all of 

 the same kind as those which inhabit the Greenland 

 Sea, sheerwaters, lummes, puffins, parasitic gulls, 

 stormy petrel, dusky albatross, a larus resembling 

 the kittiwake, a small dove-coloured tern, and shags. 

 In latitude 60° 47' N. we noticed a change in the 

 colour of the water, and on sounding found fifty- 

 four fathoms, soft blue clay. From that time until 

 we took our final departure from this sea the bottom 

 was always within reach of our common lines. The 

 water shoaled so gradually that at midnight on the 

 16th, after having run a hundred and fifty miles, we 

 had thirty-one fathoms. Here the ground changed 

 from mud to sand, and apprized us of our approach 

 to the Island of St. Lawrence, which on the follow- 

 ing morning was so close to us that we could hear 

 the surf upon the rocks. The fog was at the same 

 time so thick that we could not see the shore ; and 

 it was not until some time afterwards, when we had 

 neared the land by means of a long ground swell, 

 for it was quite calm, that we discerned the tops of 

 the hills. 



It is a fortunate circumstance that the dangers in 

 these seas are not numerous, otherwise the preva- 

 lence of fogs in the summer time would render the 

 navigation extremely hazardous. About noon we 

 were enabled to see some little distance around us ; 

 and, as we expected, the ship was close off the 

 western extremity of St. Lawrence Island. In this 

 situation the nearest hills, which were about five 



