72 Report of the Brozvn-Harvard Expedition. 



We left St. John's at 2.30 in the afternoon of Monday, June 

 25th. In beating out between the high cliffs that stand on 

 either side of the narrow entrance to its magnificent harbor, 

 the unsteady winds characteristic of the place nearly caused 

 us to drift upon the rocks and thus end our trip at the very 

 start. Outside we found a strong breeze from the south that 

 sent us well along on our way before it began to fail in the 

 evening. During the night and following day we made but 

 little progress, and came to anchor in the harbor of Greens- 

 pond Island, in Bonavista Bay, at 8.30 in the evening of the 

 26th. A prolonged easterly gale detained us here five days. 

 On July 2d, at 3.45 a. m., we again got under way, anchored 

 that night ofif Change Island, sailed through the next day 

 and night, and at noon of July 4th were ofif Cape Bauld, the 

 northern extreme of Newfoundland. Fog and calms frus- 

 trated an attempt to continue across the Straits of Belle Isle, 

 so we beat back and came to anchor in Kirpon Harbor, just 

 to the west of Cape Bauld. The distance thus far from St. 

 John's was about 330 miles. 



At Kirpon Harbor we were imprisoned eight days by 

 ice-floes. On the morning following our arrival we discov- 

 ered that the Straits were filled with ice from one shore to the 

 other, a width of some 25 miles, and in length as far as we 

 could see. A day later the harbor also was blocked. A 

 large number of other vessels — probably as many as three or 

 four hundred, according to Captain Batten — were also de- 

 tained in this and neighboring harbors, awaiting an oppor- 

 tunity to cross to the Labrador fishing grounds. We occu- 

 pied the time in excursions over the ice and about the neigh- 

 borhood on shore, and in familiarizing ourselves with the 

 details of our scientific work. 



