44 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. July 



out in a most ludicrous manner, from the food contained 

 in them, which they were carrying to their young. 

 A few Iceland gulls (Larus leucopterus), were seen 

 perched on the bergs, and this was the most northern 

 locality where we recognized that species. Guillemots 

 were abundant, a large loomery being visible near Cape 

 Parker Snow. I had intended to pass inside of Conical 

 Eock, but as we approached it towards midnight, a 

 strong northerly wind sprang up and enabled me to 

 make sail, beating to the northward. On standing off 

 the land at 6 a.m. of the 26th, when twenty-four miles 

 south-west of Conical Eock, the wind died away, and 

 observing that the current was apparently carrying us 

 rapidly to the south, I proceeded again under steam. 

 It was calm all day, with thick fog. At noon, when 

 we must have been fifteen miles south-west of Wol- 

 stenholme Island, the surface temperature rose to 40°. 

 In the afternoon, not knowing our exact position 

 with regard to the Cary Islands, and not wishing to 

 pass them, I stopped, and while waiting for the fog 

 to clear, got a sounding in three hundred fathoms 

 with no bottom ; using an ordinary deep-sea thermo- 

 meter, the warm stratum of water at a temperature of 

 about 39° was found to extend to a depth of sixty feet ; 

 at a depth of twenty fathoms the temperature was 29°. 

 Doubtless had a reversible thermometer been used we 

 should have found an underlying warmer stratum. 

 The ' Discovery ' sounding in thirty-two fathoms near 

 the Cary Islands obtained a temperature of 32° at that 

 depth, but this was probably due to local causes. 



Towards evening the fog cleared and we found our- 

 selves fifteen miles south-east of the Cary Islands. The 



