174 ON THE EFFCTING OF 



the shifting flaw will force the ship from her station, some- 

 times to a dangerous extent ; when, if rocks intervene, and 

 arrest her in the drifting, destruction is inevitable, as the 

 superior weight of ice will certainly upset or sink her. 



fine with cirrostratus : Black Hook in sight : the wind being favour- 

 able, much of this part of Greenland came within view : at noon a 

 large island was ascertained to be, by observation, in latitude 71° 46' 

 north ; but as few parts in these latitudes, except remarkable head- 

 lands, are named, this island has not yet received any distinct name 

 from Europeans. The rock is the same as that noticed at Disko, 

 namely floetz trap, with a distinct stratum of feltspar, about high 

 water mark : numerous flocks of roches, looms, dovekies, mallemucks 

 and kittiwakes ; also a solitary burgomaster. 



June 22: ther. 32°, 41°, 30°: wind calm or variable and light: the 

 transient visitation of the wind, coming at uncertain intervals, and 

 from almost every point of the compass, produces a slight ruffling of 

 the sea, which is throughout this day of a glassy smoothness : the 

 sailors call these ruffled patches, cat-skins : these patches are only of 

 short duration, and the most extensive not half a mile over : they are 

 invariably in the corresponding position of the superincumbent cloud, 

 which is cirrostratus, low and of a deep brown, except where the sim- 

 light tinges it of a yellow hue : in the places where this cloud ap- 

 proaches the horizon, a distinct communication may be observed 

 between the cirrostratus bed and the wave beneath, somewhat similar 

 to rain descending from a nimbus : this communication was always 

 followed by the cat-skin. Whenever the ship came within such com- 



