74 JOURNAL. 



Augufl. fiivourable for our pnrpofe, and afforded us the fulleft op- 

 portunity of afcertaining repeatedly the fituation of that 

 wall of ice, extending for more than twenty degrees 

 between the latitudes of eighty and eighty-one, without 

 the fmallefi appearance of any opening. 



I fliould here conclude the account of the voyage, had 

 not fome obfervations and experiments occurred on the 

 paffage home. 



In fleering to the Southward we foon found the 

 weather grow more mild, or rather to our feelings warm. 

 Auguft 24th, we faw Jupiter: the fight of a ftar was 

 now become almoft as extraordinary a phenomenon, as the 

 fun at midnight when we firft got within the Ardic circle. 

 The weather was very fine for fome part of the voyage ; 

 September, on the 4th of September, the water being perfcdly 

 fmooth with a dead calm, I repeated with fuccefs the 

 attempt I had made to get foundings in the main ocean at 

 great depths, and ftruck ground in fix hundred and eighty- 

 three fathoms, with circumflances (which will be men- 

 tioned in the Appendix) that convince me I was not mif- 

 taken in the depth ; the bottom was a fine foft blue clay. 

 From the 7th of September, when we were off Shetland, 

 till the 24th, when we made Orfordnefs, we had veiy 

 hard gales of wind with little intermiffibn, which were 

 conftantly indicated feveral hours before they came on by 

 the fall of the barometer, and rife of the manometer : this 

 5 proved 



