16 PASSAGE ACROSS 



1S24. the 2Gtli, and the day was so obscure, that we 

 August, kept company with tlie Snap by guns and 

 bells. In the evening we passed a piece of 

 drift fir, about six feet in length, and appa- 

 rently much decayed. 



The early part of the 27th was moderate, 

 but the wind increased to a hazy southerly 

 gale by midnight. This continued until noon 

 of the 28th, when it broke, and we again 

 made sail. A number of looms, and a few 

 stormy peterels were seen. 



With the assistance of the Snap, we made 

 some progress during the 29th, on which night 

 the aurora was faintly visible. 



The wind on the 30th varied from fine in 

 the morning to a north-west gale at night, but 

 it moderated on the forenoon of the 31st ; and 

 at night increased from the south. 



The morning of the 1st of August was thick 

 and foggy, with rain; at ten A.M. we dis- 

 covered through the haze our first piece of 

 ice, a small berg of about seventy feet. We 

 soon passed this and several others, but saw 

 no floe or brash ice, although there was every 

 reason to suppose that a pack was near, from 

 the sudden smoothness and change of tem- 

 perature in the water, now at 32^, while 

 the air was only at 34°. Repeated observa- 



