A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 175 



Many dangerous reefs and sunken rocks, which have not 

 been laid down on. the charts already published, are to be 

 met with in those seas ; but they have not been ascer- 

 tained except within very few years back, at times when the 



munication, I observed a light mist to fall in acicular snow, exceedingly 

 minute and evanescent. 



June 23 : ther. 34°, 44°, 28°: wind E.N.E., light breeze : cirrocu- 

 mulus of dazzling whiteness seen through the purplish brown masses 

 of cirrostratus floating beneath : water, oceanic azure : land nearly 

 out of sight : much loose ice to the westward : whales seen in groups 

 of five and six, making hasty progress northward : some few seals 

 came in view : the blue colour of the sea is supposed, in the Straits, to 

 be reflected from a rocky bottom, and demands the utmost vigilance 

 of the mariner : procellaria glacialis in small number on wing ; so 

 also larus maximus : colymbus glocitans, colymbus troile, larus tridac- 

 tylus and eburneus ; the latter very clamorous. 



June 24: ther. 30°, 37°, 34°: wind N.E. by N., strong breeze: 

 this day is bright, but hazy : Ught acicular snow constantly falling : 

 the ice seen occasionally as the ship tacks in the breeze : procellaria 

 glacialis, and colymbus grylle. 



June 25 : ther. 24°, 30°, 28° : wind N.E. by N., light breeze: at- 

 mosphere as yesterday, hazy, and intensely bright without snow ; the 

 change of temperature painfully felt : at times zenith clear. 



June 26: ther. 32° invariably : wind S.W., strong breeze: at mid- 

 night, between this day and last, the sun came to the meridian at a 

 variation of somewhat more than 6i points eastward of the compass : 



