Northern Expedition. 307 
the ship, but obliquely. From my own obseryation, I find that 
the bearings of distant objects with the ship’s head north and 
south correspond, which would not be the case if the attraction 
of the ship-was not fore and aft, but athwart. The azimuths 
taken with the ship’s head north or south generally agree. It is 
supposed likewise that the error arising from the ship’s attrac- 
tion has increased with the variation and dip. As there were no 
observations made before leaving England on the, ship’s attrac- 
tion, we must have patience until the variation is again decreased. 
‘< | think that the error has been constant the whole voyage. 
The ship’s head at west gives, according to my own observation, 
an increase of variation 16 deg.; at east a decrease of 16 deg. 
On the 27th we cast off from the ice with the prospect of an 
opening, and ecruized about in a narrow pool till the 2d July, 
when a fine fresh breeze opened a passage for us. On the 3d 
we were in 71. 30.—on the 4th 72. 30. On the 7th, in lat. 74. 
were again obstructed by ice, the bergs and flaws much heavier 
by far than those we have hitherto seen. 
<¢ We are now in the same place that Baffin, two hundred 
years ago, anchored: we find the Three Islands just as he de- 
scribes them ; he makes them in 74.4. We make them 74. 1}. 
Baffin gives an honest account of them. We stretched to 
the westward on the 9th and 10th, but found the sea all fast. 
We are now in daily expectation of the wind shifting to the 
N.E. and blowing strong, which is the only thing that will 
do us good, It is strange that, at the same time of the year, 
almost to a day, Baffin should have been stopped by ice in the 
same place ; he likewise stood west without finding clear sea— 
His account takes him to 78. N. but he does not say he was at 
the top of the Bay, or saw land there. Our voyage hitherto has 
heen very pleasant—Since the middle of June we have had very 
fine weather, the thermometer in sun 76.—sometimes in the 
shade it is at a mean about 35. or 34, sometimes below the 
freezing point. For five or six weeks we have only had occasion 
to take in the first reef once. The water is as smooth as a mill- 
pond all weathers. We have scarcely seen rain—our changes of 
weather are from cloudy to thick fogs, and sometimes light falls 
of snow. Sometimes the sun shines unclouded the whole twenty- 
four hours. We have seen two whales only, and have heard but 
of one being killed since we have been here—they are all north 
of us. Bears are as scarce—one has been seen. A great number 
of the gull tribe have been shot, and we sometimes procure a mess 
of eider ducks; seals are more abundant, but we don’t trouble 
them. The coast of Greenland, where we saw it, to the south- 
ward of 704, is higher than to the northward of that latitude. Here 
the coast consists of many high bold bluff-like head lands, which, 
U2 closer 
