364 Captain Scoresby’s Journal of a Voyage to the 
which acts upon all ice, and gives it a universal tendency to lee- 
ward, operates more powerfully on light and hummocky ice, than 
on heavy and flat ice, so that the two former descriptions drift fast- 
er than the two latter. This general tendency of the ice is modi- 
fied by the influence of other ice in connection or contact with it, 
also by the different forms which the sheets of ice assume, and by 
the position in which they lie, in reference to the wind. For in- 
stance : while circular sheets of ice, or sheets having a regular po- 
lygonal form, generally drift directly before the wind,” — oblong 
pieces pursue a medium course between that of the direction of the 
wind, and the point to which the leeward extremity of their long- 
est axis is directed. Hence it is evident, that the united effect of 
these various causes influencing f the set of the ice/ can never be 
fully anticipated ; although long experience, in navigating the polar 
seas, will enable a person of observation, in most cases, to form a 
tolerably correct judgment of the safety or danger of almost any si- 
tuation. Such being the anxieties and dangers attendant on the 
navigation among the northern ices, the relief that the captains of 
the whalers experience, when they get clear out to sea, must be in 
some degree appreciated. My father has been heard to express his 
feelings on this subject, when fairly at sea, w r ith the characteristic 
observation, that his watch was out.” P. 349, 350. 
On Sunday, September 1 st, the sea was observed coloured in 
veins or patches, of a brown colour, or sometimes with a yellow- 
ish green ; and this water, on being examined by the microscope, 
appeared swarming with minute marine animals. A drop of 
this water contained 26,500 animalcules. Hence, reckoning 
sixty drops to a dram, there would be a number in a gallon of 
water, exceeding by one-half the amount of the population of 
the whole globe. It affords an interesting conception of the 
minuteness of some tribes of animals, when we think of more 
than 26,000 individuals living, obtaining subsistence, and mov- 
ing perfectly at their ease in a single drop of water. “ A whale, 1 ’ 
says our author, “ requires a sea, an ocean to sport in ; about a 
hundred and fifty millions of these minute creatures, would have 
abundant room in a tumbler of water.” 
On the 3d September they experienced a severe gale. On 
the 5th came in sight of Myngeness, the most western of the 
Faroe Islands. The phenomena of the clouds in the high cliffs 
of Kalsoe and Osteroe, lead our author into an interesting spe- 
culation in regard to the formation and suspension of clouds, 
which we regret our limits prevent us noticing at present. At 
6 a. m. of the 9th September, they made land, which proved to 
be the Butt of the Lewis. The weather had a troubled aspect. 
