228 Northern Expedition. 
pletely lost in the clouds. Near this island are all the Green- 
land ships at anchor, giving a finish to the scene, whose gran- 
deur and beauty are far beyond any thing I have seen before. 
The longitudes of the places on this coast were very much in 
want of corrections, We had a great number of excellent lunars 
to the southward, which, with the Isabella’s chronometers, which 
go admirably, will, I think, determine the longitudes so far, to 
the nearest three or four miles. The dip of the needle in lat. 
67. 22. was 82. and the variation 67, 30. 
© Here the dip about the same, and the azimuths we have 
taken this morning we cannot work for want of a latitude, which 
we hope to obtain at midnight. The transit of the sun for the 
pendulum we hope to get to-morrow, and if the ice still remains 
firm, so as to prevent our leaving this place, the next day, we 
trust, will produce something in this way. Delighted as I am 
to take a part in these observations, I confess I should be glad 
to see the tents struck to-night, and the ice open; and you may 
rely upon it, that no object whatever will ever tempt our Com- 
modore to neglect for an instant the main object of the expedi- 
tion. The current that has been spoken of as coming constantly 
down the Straits, if it exists at all, must be to the westward of 
our track up the Straits; and, indeed, all the masters of the 
ships have a great dread of being set to the westward in our 
present latitude, as they insist upon it that if a ship were beset 
here she would probably come out in 65 degrees. 
“ Tuesday, June 28. 
~*¢ The ice having opened a little on the evening of Saturday, 
we endeavoured to get over from Hare Island to the coast of 
Greenland, or, as the masters call it, the East Land. The Isa- 
bella was beset in making this attempt, and was drifted about 
with the ice by the tides till Monday morning. “We were more 
fortunate, having succeeded in getting over to the land, and into 
clear water, on Sunday evening, and there made fast to a berg, 
to wait for the Isabella, There would be no navigating this sea 
but for the bergs; for, after the men have tawed and warped 
the ship for 12 or 14 hours, she would be adrift again, and at 
the mercy of the ice, if you could not anchor in security to one 
ofthese enormous masses, which rests upon the ground, and 
perfectly secures you from every danger, except that (which has 
once or twice occurred to us) of drifting off with a high spring 
tide into deep water.- A ship is almost perfectly secure from 
going on shore, when well anchored to them ; for the smallest 
of them draws so much more water than any ship, that it must 
ground long before the ship, unless the shore immediately within. 
it is very steep indeed. A’ very small ice-berg, to which we 
a . anchored 
