16 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 
water fell to 39.5°, when we were near it, but 
was at 41°, when at the distance of half a mile. 
The thermometer in the air remained steadily at 
40°. Thus the proximity of this ice was not so 
decidedly indicated by the decrease of the tem- 
perature of either the air or water, as I have before 
witnessed, which was probably owing to the 
recent arrival of the stream at this point, and its 
passing at too quick a rate for the effectual dif. 
fusion of its chilling influence beyond a short 
distance. Still the decrease in both cases was 
sufficient to have given timely warning for a 
ship’s performing any evolution that would haye 
‘prevented the coming in contact with it, had the 
thickness of the weather precluded a distant 
view of the danger. 
_ The approach to ice would be more evidently 
pointed out in the Atlantic, or wherever the sur- 
face is not so continually chilled by the passing 
and the melting of ice as in this sea ; and I should 
strongly recommend a strict hourly attention to 
the thermometrical state of the water at the sur- 
face, in all parts where ships are exposed to the 
dangerous concussion of sailing icebergs, as a 
principal means of security. a | 
The following day our ship came near another 
stream of ice, and the approach to it was indi- 
cated by a decrease of the temperature of the 
