a 
TO THE ARCTIC REGIONS. ) 
Monday, 17th. — We discharged our pilot this 
morning into the Swallow revenue cutter... He was 
charged with a considerable number of letters from 
the officers and men, this being, in all probability, the 
last opportunity we should have for some time of 
sending letters to our friends. In the course of the 
day, we saw several of the divers called in the Lin- 
nan arrangement Alca Arctica, and commonly deno- 
minated by seamen Puffin. 
Tuesday, 18th. — Nothing occurred to-day worthy 
of remark, the weather continues very fine, and the 
wind still in our favour; in the course of the after- 
noon we had a distant view of Morven Hill, and 
several other mountains in Banffshire, that appeared 
as it were rearing their lofty summits out of the 
ocean. 
Wednesday, 19th. — A similar appearance was pre- 
sented to-day by Fair Island, on being first seen. It 
is not indeed of any great height, but it is a fact well 
known in optics, that, unless a person has something 
of a correct idea of the distance of an object, he will 
fancy it great or small, according as he estimates its 
distance. I do not mean to imply by this, however, 
that we were ignorant of the distance Fair Island was 
from us; but merely, that, if we could suppose it to 
be as far from us as the hills in Banff were when 
seen yesterday, we should necessarily imagine it to 
