184 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. October 



eau-de-cologne, and mittens, with which Mrs. Bolbroe, 

 her children, and governess were supplied. 



On the 2nd we bade adieu to our kind friends, and 

 on the 4th recrossed the Arctic circle, after expe- 

 riencing fifteen months' unnatural division of light and 

 darkness. 



Encountering a succession of strong contrary gales, 

 very slow progress was made to the southward. 



As the weather became warmer and damper many 

 of the men were attacked by colds and rheumatism, 

 after an almost total exemption from those ailments in 

 the extremely cold but dry weather we had experienced 

 in the far north. 



Keeping near the Greenland coast only a few 

 straggling icebergs were met with ; and floe-ice on 

 only one occasion, when the wind had driven the ships 

 over towards the west shore. 



In Davis Strait the temperature of the water 

 varied considerably, ranging between 33° and 39°, 

 probably depending on our distance from the western 

 ice. The specific gravity in the cold streams denoted 

 Polar water. 



Vast numbers of little auks were observed migrating 

 to the southward, in small flocks of about twenty to 

 fifty in number, and many bottle-nose whales were 

 seen. 



On the 12th, during a very severe gale, in which 

 the ships were hove-to under a close-reefed main top- 

 sail and storm staysail, the rudder-head of the ' Alert,' 

 which had been sprung when the ship was in the ice, 

 became hopelessly unserviceable, the lower part of the 

 rudder remaining sound. 



