HON. CAPTAIN PHIPPS. 303 



events before the winter should set in. He was 

 directed to make all the useful observations in 

 his power that might tend to improve navigation, 

 or promote natural knowledge, and in the event 

 of being obliged to abandon his own ship, he was 

 directed to prosecute the voyage in that of his 

 consort, the Carcass. 



On the 30th May the two ships joined com- 

 pany, the Carcass having been fitted in a different 

 port to the Racehorse, and on the 2nd June the 

 expedition quitted the Nore, passed Flam- 

 borough Head on the 9th, and was off the 

 Shetland Islands on the 14th. On the 19th 

 Captain Phipps crossed the Arctic Circle ; and 

 had the gratification of observing the meridian 

 altitude of the sun at midnight. The follow- 

 ing day Mr. Cavendish's thermometer was sunk 

 4680 feet, by which the temperature of the 

 water at that depth was ascertained to be 26°, 

 whilst that of the surface was 48° ; and a few days 

 after similar results were obtained. The obser- 

 vations with this instrument, however, should be 

 received with great caution. Dr. Irving' s appa- 

 ratus for distilling fresh water from that of the 

 ocean was now tried, for the first time, and suc- 

 ceeded beyond expectation, producing from thirty- 

 four to forty gallons of pure water in the course 

 of the day, with no other fuel than that employed 



A.D. 



1773. 



