32 
ZONES OF MIST. 
pitable clefts, rose into the line of sunshine, and flew 
in circles round their unstable resting-place." 
Our little vessel pursued her way without drawback, 
heading, as nearly as the wind permitted, for our ap- 
pointed rendezvous with the Rescue. The zones of 
discolored sea, which we met upon entering Baffin's 
Bay, still continued, though less frequent than further 
to the south. Their color varied from a chocolate to 
a muddy green, and it seemed as if their general di- 
rection was governed by some uniform cause not di- 
rectly connected with superficial currents. Of eight 
belts which I noted, five had a marked trend from the 
northeast to the southwest. It struck me as remark- 
able, too, that the movements of the acalephse beneath 
the surface were seldom in the axis of the stream. 
They crossed it obliquely. May it not be that such 
belts of discoloration as are visible at the surface are 
merely protruding ridges of great, submerged areas ? 
My meteorological abstract shows for this period a 
comfortless alternation of fogs, scanty sunshine, and 
drizzling rain. These fogs extended generally over a 
considerable surface, and, though not accompanied by 
such changes of wind or temperature as to attract no- 
tice, had no doubt some relation to the fishing shoals 
over which we were passing. Sometimes, however, 
we entered continuous streams of mist, not extending 
higher than our cross trees, and emerged from them 
again so suddenly as to make me ascribe them to local 
refrigeration induced by the neighborhood of ice. The 
eftect of these fogs upon the diffusion of light was far 
from pleasant. Our now nominal twilight reminded 
me of a bright glare, subdued by a ground glass screen: 
our eyes suffered more than during the unobstructed 
sunshine. 
