OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
11 
of them of large dimensions. At a quarter past five P.M., we sounded in 1819. 
one hundred and fifteen fathoms ; the water at the surface of the sea had the 
same brownish tinge which has already been noticed, but no difference in 
its temperature or specific gravity could be detected. Towards midnight, 
the wind having shifted to the south-west, and moderated, another exten- 
sive chain of very large icebergs appeared to the northward; as we ap- 
proached them the wind died away, and the ships’ heads were kept to the 
northward, only by the steerage way given to them by a heavy southerly 
swell, which, dashing the loose ice with tremendous force against the 
bergs, sometimes raised a white spray over the latter to the height of more 
than one hundred feet, and being accompanied with a loud noise, exactly 
resembling the roar of distant thunder, presented a scene at once sublime 
and terrific. We could find no bottom near these icebergs with one hundred 
and ten fathoms of line. 
At four A.M., on the 4th, we came to a quantity of loose ice, which lay Sun. 4. 
straggling among the bergs ; and, as there was a light breeze from the southward, 
and I was anxious to avoid, if possible, the necessity of going to the eastward, 
I pushed the Hecla into the ice, in the hope of being able to make our way 
through it. We had scarcely done so, however, before it fell calm ; when the 
ship became perfectly unmanageable, and was for some time at the mercy of 
the swell, which drifted us fast towards the bergs. All the boats were 
immediately sent a-head to tow ; and the Griper’s signal was made, not to 
enter the ice. After two hours’ hard pulling, we succeeded in getting the 
Hecla back again into clear water, and to a sufficient distance from the 
icebergs, which it is very dangerous to approach when there is any swell. 
At noon we were in lat. 66" 50' 47", long. 56° 47' 56", being near the 
middle of the narrowest part of Davis’ Strait, which is here not more than 
fifty leagues across. Davis, on returning from his third voyage, sets it down 
at forty leagues* ; and in another place remarks : “In the latitude of 
sixtie-seuen degrees, I might see America, west, from me, and Desolation, 
(Greenland), eastf.” The truth of this last remark had been much doubted, 
till the observations made on our expedition of 1818, by determining the 
geographical position of the two coasts thus seen by Davis, served to confirm 
the accuracy of that celebrated and able navigator. 
* Collection of Voyages. 
t The Worlde’s Hydrographicall Discription, 1595. 
