124 
VOYAGE TO GREENLAND. 
a great quantity of bay ice had formed on the 
edges of the floes, so that being perfectly smooth, 
and extending like an immense plain, it offered a 
striking contrast to the ponderous masses of every 
variety of form and size which rose behind it. The 
temperature of the atmosphere during the last three 
days, had been delightful, and the sun now exercised 
its genial influence on the snow, which covered the 
fields and floes of ice. In their lowest parts were 
formed large pools, or lakes, of fresh water, from 
which tributary offerings were pouring in small 
channels, through cavities in the edge of the ice, to 
mingle with the waters of the ocean. A curious 
effect was produced by the sun’s dazzling beams 
on lofty masses of the ice, whose summits over- 
arched their sides, or had openings in them, from 
whence long pendent icicles shone with a reflected 
transparency, the splendour of which nothing could 
exceed. The mass here exhibited was at least 
forty feet high and sixty in length. 
The extraordinary fine and warm weather 
^ ' of the ninth and tenth instant, brought its 
usual consequence in this region; a most dense 
fog for three successive days, which kept us in 
much awful anxiety, to discover our situation, as 
perfect calms and strong breezes had prevailed, 
both of which are formidable enemies to the navi- 
gation of those seas. In the afternoon the fog 
abated, and we found ourselves in more open water 
than we had been in for some time. We saw a 
vessel, appearing to be deeply laden, and to be 
