on the Temperature of the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.207 
in an immense broken area, which with a very heavy swell on, 
_ made her sides creak dreadfully. However, we providentially 
_ escaped from this imminent danger with trifling damage to her. 
_ We entered the gulf early in the forenoon of Monday the 28th, 
and at 7" 30™ P.M. of the 29th proceeded into an immense 
expanse of ice, consisting at the entrance of detached spongy 
pieces; but about 9° 30" her motion was altogether impeded ; 
and in the morning we found that she was completely locked up 
' by it, extending to the west and north as far as the eye could 
reach, while the part of Newfoundland in view called up terrific 
ideas of desolation and hunger. About 10° 30" A.M. of Friday 
the 16th May, after a number of zigzag motions, effected 
means of small anchors that had been grappled in the ice for the 
purpose, we got clear, leaving to the south an immense field. 
‘This, as 1 was informed, principally drifts from the river St. 
Laurence, or gets into the gulf, and becomes increased there 
by the remainder of immerse masses from Hudson’s Bay, &e. 
_ which are borne round Newfoundland, and impelled in the re~ 
spective directions of the winds or ‘currents. That in which the 
_Prevoyante was, continued to drift through the Straits of Bell- 
isle. 
This ice business was scarcely over, when we had to encounter 
others of a more alarming nature: for on the 23d of May, about 
7 P.M. the ship grounded on, or literally ploughed the Traverse, 
a zigzag rocky shoal about sixty miles down from Quebec, eight 
or nine miles in length, and extending right across, witb. the ex- 
ception of a very narrow channel of a moderate depth, and which 
is commonly missed in consequence of only a solitary buoy being 
attached to it; while, on the other hand, the great distance of 
land on either side, the consequent deficiency of proper obiects, 
nd the ignorance of the pilots, who are only guided by the lead, 
{a method which, ina river of so great a flow and ebb, is not only 
uncertain, but for the most part fallacious,) naturally preclude 
the infallible or scientific resource of angular positions; or, to'use 
a nautical phrase, cross-bearings. We luckily got clear here 
_ with (as we afterwards learned) the loss only of her false keel. 
More vessels are, I believe, on an average, wrecked, and con- 
_ sequently more souls (in this respect) perish, in these parts than 
in any other quarter of the globe, Of the continual dense fogs 
and mists on the banks which contribute greatly to this, 1 shail 
say a little, after making a few preliminary remar ks. 
‘In summer and in autumn, we commonly find, that in pro- 
portion as a ship in sailing to Halifax, Newfoundland, or Quebee, 
recedes from the shores of England, or proceeds westward to cer- 
tain longitudes, the winds from the southward and southern east- 
ward become less heating, or more refreshing ; a likewise in 
%, Winter 
d 
7 
5 
e 
