l'KEFACE. 



XI 



appendix of the second edition of my narrative, now published, you will see an 

 article on the Tides, as also one upon the Geology, by Professor Haughton. 

 Observations upon Halos, &c, with the Polariscope, have been sent to Professor 

 Stokes; a scries of earth temperatures, to Dr. Jos. I looker, of Kcw Botanic Gardens, 

 as also the specimens of dried and living plants. Natural history specimens have 

 also been made over to scientific friends of the Expedition, my sole object being, 

 to render our labors subservient to scientific ends, and with the least possible 

 delay." 



" I quite agree with Kane's remarks as to the increase of cold during full moon. 

 The fact was noticed as far back as 1829-30, by Sir John Ross, in the Victory. 



" I also agree with you in opinion that the apparent quantity of ozone depends 

 upon the velocity of the air which has free access to the box containing the* pre- 

 pared paper." 



" I likewise think that when you have fully examined my data now in your posses- 

 sion you will in a great measure subscribe to my opinion as to the ice-movement 

 [as connected with the wind]. I referred in my letter only to the winter move- 

 ments of the ice when there is no discharge of water whatever from the land, and 

 when the precipitation in the northern regions is reduced to its minimum. The 

 Barrow Strait stream is almost lost in the vast expanse of Baffin's Bay, but its line 

 is tolerably well indicated by De Haven's drift. The entire current which brings 

 such quantities of ice round Cape Farewell, and up to about 65° N., appears to be 

 deflected off shore to the westward by banks which lie in about the latitude of 67°. 

 It sweeps very swiftly past Cape Walsingham, curves southward, and having united 

 with Barrow Strait current continues its course downward along the Labrador 

 coast; so that the Labrador current is not due, in my opinion, so much to water 

 flowing from the upper part of Baffin's Bay as to the Arctic current which sets 

 around Cape Farewell from the East." 



"The long drift of the Terror through Hudson's Straits in 1836-37 appears to 

 me to be another instance of the effect of wind upon the ice, as in this case it does 

 not seem possible that any considerable current could always, that is to say all 

 winter, set out of Hudson's Bay. But it is my anxious endeavor to bring to light 

 facts instead of advancing hypotheses, and I do know from repeated observations 

 in the Fox, in 1837, and in H. M. S. Bulldog during the past summer, that the 

 Arctic currents [from around Cape Farewell] flow northward along the coast of 

 Greenland— off Frederickshaab, for instance, at from eighteen to twenty-four 

 miles daily, and that West India seeds have been borne by it as far north as 

 ■ Egedesminde, which is in about 68° of north latitude. Our observations, there- 

 fore, upon the volume of water setting out of Baffin's Bay [on the west side] should 

 not be extended south of this point without making considerable allowance for the 

 current which flows around Cape Farewell, and northward up the coast." 



In one of his communications, Captain M'Clintock states that the beams of the 

 aurora were mpst frequently seen in the direction of open water, or else in that of 

 places where vapor was rising. In some cases, patches of light could be plainly 

 seen a few feet above a small mass of vapor over an opening in the ice. This 

 observation is in accordance with a deduction from an examination of a large number 



