4 



SECOND VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY. 



1821. ture of the sea- water, at four hundred and sixty fathoms below the sur- 

 face, was found, by Six's thermometer, to be 40°. 7, that of the surface 

 being 45 i°, and of the air, 46 J°. A number of bottle-nose whales were 

 about the ships. 



Sat. 9. On the 9th, we saw a bird much resembling a fulmar petrel in shape, but 

 differing in plumage from any we had before remarked, its general colour 

 being a dark-brown, with a white stripe extending completely across the 

 wings, along the tips of the wing-covers, both above and below. 



After entering Davis' Straits, we had for several days variable and un- 

 settled weather, the wind blowing principally from the southward, with a 

 Thur. 14. heavy swell from the same quarter. On the 14th, we met with the first ice- 

 berg, being in lat. 60° 48', long. 53° 13'. On the following day, the tem- 

 perature of the sea, at the depth of four hundred and sixty fathoms, was 

 found, by Six's thermometer, to be 40°, that of the surface being 40 J°, and of 

 the air 41 1°. While in the entrance of Davis' Strait, we met with two or three 

 small pieces of drift-wood on different days ; they appeared to be of fir, 

 and to have been a considerable time in the water, though not at all worm- 

 eaten. 



Mon. 18. Soon after daylight, on the 18th, we passed a quantity of loose ice, such as 

 usually occurs at a little distance from the main body. We came to the edge 

 of the "pack" in the course of the forenoon and, finding here a consider- 

 able swell, tacked off and on till the water should become smoother, being 

 at noon in lat. 60° 50' 12", long. 62° 08' 30". On the day before we made 

 the ice, we had observed a great number of looms as well as fulmar petrels 

 about the ships. On reaching its margin, we found, besides these, large 

 flocks of phalaropes, ( phalaropns platyrinchus,) rotges, dovekies, and one or 

 two of snow-buntings, ( emberisa nivalis,) the latter attended by their enemy 

 the hawk, ffalco peregrinusj. The temperature of the sea- water had de- 

 creased pretty gradually from 40° on the morning of the 17th, to 34° on that 

 of the 18th, previously to our making the ice ; after which it soon fell to 32° 

 and 30°, being its usual standard in the neighbourhood of a body of ice, 

 during the summer months. 



Having now reached the situation in which I was directed, by my instruc- 

 tions, to clear the Nautilus of our stores, I was desirous immediately to 

 commence this work, in order to be ready for the opening of the ice in 

 Hudson's Strait, which might be expected to occur in a few days. There 

 being a number of bergs in sight, I determined to anchor the ships to 



