Drift Ice and Currents of the North Atlantic. 377 



realis very bright. At 3 30 a. m. of the 19th, again got embayed 

 in the ice ; stopped, hauled short round on our keel, and steered 

 out E. by S., coasting the ice for five or six miles. At 4 20 

 kept her to the westward, running through innumerable icebergs 

 until 8 30, when Ave passed the last iceberg and field of ice." 



" When the sun arose the ice was visible as far as the eye 

 could reach, in an unbroken line from N. E. by E., by the north- 

 ward to N. W. by W. ; at the same time, icebergs innumerable 

 in every direction, forming one of the most magnificent sights I 

 ever beheld." 



" The first iceberg we saw was in latitude 43^, longitude 48^^ 

 30' ; and the last in latitude 42° 20', longitude 50°. I am quite 

 sure there was an unbroken field of that extent ; and from what 

 I heard from Capt. Bailey, of the packet ship South America, I 

 have no doubt the field ice extended, with very little break, to 

 latitude 40° 30', where Capt. B. fell in with it on the morning 

 of the 18th. Several other ships also fell in with it in the same 

 longitude, and were completely stopped, giving them an oppor- 

 tunity of killing seals, which were on it in great numbers. Some 

 of the icebergs I estimate at little, if at all less than a mile long, 

 and from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet high. This 

 field of ice was in large masses, some of them not less than 

 twenty feet square by six feet thick or more." 



" The temperature of the water, when within two miles of 

 the first iceberg seen, fell suddenly from 50° to 36° ; air 40° to 

 36°. When in the ice, the water was 25°, air 28° ; during the 

 remainder of the night and following morning the water was not 

 higher than 30° nor the air higher than 32°. Immediately after 

 passing the last ice the water became 36° and the air 42°." 



Brig Cynosure, on the 23d, 24th, and 25th of July, 1842, lati- 

 tude 42°, longitude 49° 30', saw large icebergs, and was two 

 days among the ice. Saw an island of ice that was estimated 

 to be two hundred feet above the water, and saw several other 

 islands in longitude 54°. 



Ship England, Bartlett, April, 1842, latitude 41° 29', longi- 

 tude 49°, saw a large number of icebergs. 



Brig Byron, Pierson, April, 1842, latitude 41° 18', longitude 

 50°, saw four large islands of ice, one about 200 feet high and 

 three miles long. Saw it 30 miles oiF. 



