68 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. III. 



rollers which swept over the surface of the bay, and 

 obliged the Dorothea, then careening at the dist- 

 ance of four miles, to aright, by releasing the 

 tackles, he thus proceeds : — 



" The piece, that had been disengaged, at first wholly 

 disappeared under water, and nothing was seen but a vio- 

 lent boiling of the sea, and a shooting up of clouds of spray, 

 like that which occurs at the foot of a great cataract. After 

 a short time it reappeared, raising its head full a hundred 

 feet above the surface, with water pouring down from all 

 parts of it ; and then labouring as if doubtful which way it 

 should fall, it rolled over, and after rocking about some mi- 

 nutes, at length became settled. 



" We now approached it, and found it nearly a quarter 

 of a mile in circumference, and sixty feet out of the water. 

 Knowing its specific gravity, and making a fair allowance 

 for its inequalities, we computed its weight at 421,660 

 tons. A stream of salt water was still pouring down its 

 sides, and there was a continual cracking noise, as loud as 

 that of a cart-whip, occasioned, I suppose, by the escape of 

 fixed (confined) air." — pp. 157, 158. 



Mr. Beechey confirms what has frequently been 

 found and noticed — the mildness of the temperature 

 on the western coast of Spitzbergen ; there being 

 little or no sensation of cold, though the thermo- 

 meter might be only a few degrees above the 

 freezing point. The brilliant and lively effect of a 

 clear day, when the sun shines forth, with a pure 

 sky, whose azure hue is so intense as to find no 

 parallel even in the boasted Italian sky, affords, in 

 Mr. Beechey 's opinion, a full compensation for the 



