350 
East Coast of West Greenland. 
mass of ice that had appeared to be only a few feet high, under 
the erroneous idea which had been formed of its distance, pro- 
ved to be higher than a ship's mast-head. On the 30th of J uly, 
being now nearly 2° of latitude farther south than the lowest 
parallel in which Captain Scoresby had ever pursued the whale- 
fishery with success, and being disappointed in his expectation 
of finding whales, he determined to make researches for whales 
in other quarters. He now, therefore, bore away to the east- 
ward, with the view of doubling the chain of floating icebergs 
off* Cape Brewster. Their number proved to be more consi- 
derable than had been expected. One of them was a mile in 
circumference, and 100 feet above the level of the sea, and the 
estimated weight of this floating mass was 45 millions of tons ! 
On the 31st July, they continued their course to the north-east- 
ward, skirting the western edge of the ice : the Lat. at noon 
was 70° $5' N., Long. 10° 11' W. An angle of the highest 
peak of Roscoe mountains, taken in passing them at a consider- 
able distance, gave the height of 4370 feet, — the altitude of 
Ben Nevis, in Scotland. On the 6th August, in Lat. 72° 7', 
Long. 10° 1 T, soundings were obtained in 118 fathoms. The tem- 
perature of the sea at the surface was 34°, and, within five fathoms 
of the bottom, by a Six’s thermometer, it was 29°. The air at 
this time was 42°. Jn all former experiments on the tempera- 
ture of the Greenland Sea, Captain Scoresby invariably found 
it to be warmer below than at the surface, — facts which lead to 
some further interesting observations which we cannot spare 
room for noticing. The neighbouring floating ice-bergs and 
ice-fields offered opportunity for new observations and views in 
regard to their formation. Mention is made of ice crystallised 
in cubes, rhomboidal dodecahedrons, rhomboids* and prisms. 
But here there must be some oversight : there can be but one 
primitive form in ice, — in this case the cube or rhomboid, —and 
we have no doubt that the rhomboid is the primitive form ; and, 
therefore, that the supposed cube and rhomboidal dodecahedron 
would have proved, on more accurate investigation, to be forms 
of the rhomboidal series. 
Having failed in falling in with whales, they again stood in 
for the land, and got close in with the shore aijd abreast Traill 
Island, (named in compliment to Dr Traill, a distinguished 
