18 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



quired anxiously, but in vain, for intelli- 

 gence respecting Lieutenant Parry, and the 

 ships under his command ; but as he men- 

 tioned that the wind had been blowing 

 strong from the northward for some time, 

 which would, probably, have cleared Baf- 

 fin's Bay of ice, we were disposed to hope 

 favourably of his progress. 



The clouds assumed so much the appear- 

 ance of icebergs this evening, as to deceive 

 most of the passengers and crew ; but their 

 imaginations had been excited by the in- 

 telligence we had received from the An- 

 drew Marvell, that she had only parted 

 from a cluster of them two days previous 

 to our meeting. 



On the 27th, being in latitude 57° 44' 21" 

 N., longitude 47° 31' 14" W., and the wea- 

 ther calm, we tried for soundings, but did 

 not reach the bottom. The register ther- 

 mometer was attached to the line just above 

 the lead, and is supposed to have descended 

 six hundred and fifty fathoms. A well- 

 corked bottle was also fastened to the line, 

 two hundred fathoms above the lead, and 



