A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 159 



This policy is not obviously calculated to improve the con- 

 dition of the poor Greenlanders, nor to aid materially the 

 labours of the missionaries. The efforts of those benevolent 



pre-indicated by the radiation of last day : extensive but loose cirro- 

 cumulus slightly obscuring the sun : ship still fast to ice in Love Bay : 

 coarse sand in seventeen fathoms of sounding. 



The tide rises hei'e about eight feet : the ice began now slowly 

 moving down to the southward, and shut in the Point of Lievely : 

 a shoal of delphinus leucas seen, each about ten feet in length : a 

 pair of ravens seen. 



May 19 : ther. 32°, 34°, 28° : wind N. light breeze : general dif- 

 fusion of brownish-grey cirrostratus : the sun liglit intense, allows a 

 distinct view of objects the most distant : Disko clear : atmosphere 

 mildly warm : ship cast off from the ice as it began to open freely : 

 course directed to the N.W. as all the South East Bay and the 

 Waygat Sound were closed, according to the report of the natives : 

 one blubber whale and a seal seen : also a raven, a few looms, and 

 a small number of procellaria glaciaUs on wing, proceeding to the 

 north-westward. 



May 20 : ther. 36°, 32°, 34° : wind, a hght au- fi-om S. : atmo- 

 sphere loaded with vapoury cirrostratus, variously coloured by the 

 sun-light : the ice blink very remarkable where an ice berg lies in 

 the horizon : about noon the cloud cleared up under the strong in- 

 fluence of the sun, forming cutus alternating with cirrocumulus : 

 a hght brown cirrus radiation appeared in the westward, rising from 

 an interrupted chain of cinostratous patches, whicli formed the seg- 



