20 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



^L early navigators, that the flood-tides run stronger than the ebbs on this 

 y^k/ coast*. 



A light air at length springing up from the south-eastward enabled us to 

 make way 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. b.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. 63|°, long. 72°, 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 run all night through 

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

 were abreast of live remarkable hillocks or undulations of the land, of which 

 the appearance was 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 up, and the wind came from the northward. The ice being 

 uoav too close to sail through with any but a leading wind, the ships Avere 

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

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

 masses of ice Avere frequently set in motion on a sudden, Avithout any apparent 

 cause. 



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

 voyage of 1631, frequently 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 

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

 I am indebted for it. 



