20' SECOND VOYACxE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



1821. early navifrators, tluit the flood-tides ran stronger than the ebbs on this 



July. JO o 



\.*-,^vy coast*. 



A light air at l(Mi£rth springing up from the south-eastward enabled us to 

 make waj' through the ice, which now once more occurred in great quantities 

 in every direction, but the pieces were so loose as easily to allow the passage 

 of a ship with a free wind. This ice, much of which was covered with sand, 

 was so honey-combed and " rotten," that it appeared in a fair way of being 

 entirely dissolved in the course of a few weeks. The current was found to 

 run S. E. 1). E., three quarters of a mile per hour, at nine A.M., or about the 

 middle of the ebb-tide. For the last week, we had scarcely seen a living 

 animal ; a glaucous gull, a boatswain, and a few looms, constituting the 

 whole that are mentioned in our journals. At two P.M., a thermometer 

 in the sun stood at 87°, and in the shade at 50°. In the evening, the 

 land abreast of ,us, in lat. 685°, long. 7-2°, became much lower than 

 before, and without snow upon any part of it. The unevenness of its gene- 

 ral outline gave to it, at times, the appearance of islands, of which there 

 are, in reality, a great number hereabouts, though I have little doubt of the 

 continuity of the land at the back. We continued to ran all night through 

 Sat. 28. the same kind of ice as before, and, at forty minutes A.M. on the 2Sth, 

 M'ere abreast of five remarkable hillocks or undulations of the land, of which 

 the appearance Avas sketched by Mr. Bushnan. We sounded frequently at 

 the depth of eighty to one hundred and fifty fathoms, the bottom being 

 extremely irregular. It rained hard for several hours, after which the wea- 

 ther cleared uj), and the Avind came from the northward. The ice being 

 now too close to sail through with any but a leading wind, the ships were 

 made fast to a floe-piece. For two days past, we had observed consider- 

 able ripplings on the water, as if occasioned by a strong tide, and the 

 masses of ice Avcre frequently set in motion on a sudden, without any apparent 

 cause. 



* This fact was noticed as early as the time of Luke Fox, who, in the journal of his 

 voyage of 1G31, frcipicntly and particularly alludes to it. His account is confirmed in a 

 highly valuable manuscript journal kept by a person of the name of Yourin, who served, 

 it seems, as " one of the officers on board the Charles, Captain Luke Fox," on that 

 voyage. This journal, which is no less remarkable for its perspicuity and accuracy than 

 for the neatness with which it is penned, is in the possession of Lord Mountnorris. By 

 his Lordship's permission a copy of this journal was obtained by Captain Sabine, to whom 

 I am indebted for it. 



