100 EVIDENCE AS TO ICE-DRIFT. 



On the voyages from the colonies to Copenhagen the course pur- 

 sued has been somewhat nearer Cape Farewell (16 m.), the cause 

 of which is — 1, that the captains, in coming from Davis Strait, 

 have a better knowledge of the situation of the ice, and its dis- 

 tance from the land, than they can have on going up to Greenland 

 in cuming from the Atlantic Ocean, where no ice is to be seen ; 

 and 2, because the home passages are made in a season in which 

 the ice generally is not quite so abundant as in spring, the season 

 fur the voyages to the colonies. 



The subjoined Table shows that the brig Lueinde fell in with 

 ice farthest to the e. (4th October, 1851, in 58° 30' n., and 

 39° o0' w. of Greenwich), which gives 79 nautic m. s., and about 

 135 nautic m. E. of Cape Farewell. This ice consisted only of a 

 single isolated floe of very small extent ; and it is very rare to 

 meet ice in this latitude so far to the eastward. 1 



On the passage from Julianshaab to this place very little ice 

 had been in sight. 



On these voyages the first and the last seen ice generally con- 

 sisted of isolated icebergs or floes, which no doubt formed the very 

 extremity of the ice which was coining from the n.e. around Cape 

 Farewell, and going into Davis Strait. Consequently the great 

 and more accumulated masses of ice carried by the current from 

 the ocean around Spitzbergen (whereby this current is really indi- 

 cated) are between these above-named outer limits and the coast of 

 Greenland. 



The southerly and south-westerly coasts of Greenland are most 

 exposed to be blocked up with these ice-di ifts in spring ; whilst, 

 on the contrary, they are pretty clear of ice from September to 

 January; but in the end of this month the ice generally begins to 

 come again in great abundance, passing around Cape Farewell. 

 [Captain Graah, p. 59.) 



Still further to demonstrate the existence of this ice-drift, I may 

 mention the following extract from the logbook of the schooner 

 Actio, Captain J. Andersen. This vessel belongs to the colony of 

 Julianehaab, and is used as a transport in this district : — 



7th of April, 1851, the Actio left Julianshaab, bound to the dif- 

 ferent establishments on the coast between Julianshaab and Cape 

 Farewell. The same day the captain was forced by the ice to take 



1 On the voyage to Greenland in 182S, Captain Graah fell in with the first ice 

 in 58° 52' lat. n., and 41° 25' w. Greenwich, which is only 57' s., and about 77 

 nautic miles to the eastward of Cape Farewell ; and he says, " Since 1817, I do 

 not know that the ice has been seeu so far to the eastward of the Cape." — 

 ' Narrative of an Expedition to the East Coast of Greenland, by Cnpt. W. A. Graah, 

 Eoyal Danish Navy,' p. 21, Eng. Transl 



