64 ^ 
VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 
1819. conning the ship by looking at the dog- vane. Under all these circumstances, 
it was necessary to run under easy sail, the breeze having gradually freshened 
up from the eastward. Our soundings were at this time extremely regular, 
being from forty-one to forty-five fathoms, on a bottom of soft mud. At ten 
o’clock the weather became clear enough to allow us to see our way through 
a narrow part in a patch of ice which lay ahead, and beyond which there Avas 
some appearance of a “ water-sky.” There is, however, nothing more deceit- 
ful than this appearance during a fog, which, by the same optical illusion 
whereby all other objects become magnified, causes every small “ hole” of 
clear water to appear like a considerable extent of open and navigable sea. 
We continued running till eleven P.M., when the fog came on again, making 
the night so dark that it was no longer possible to proceed in any tolerable 
security; I therefore directed the ships to be made fast to a floe, having 
sailed, by our account, twelve miles, the depth of water being forty-four 
fathoms. 
Mon. 30. The fog continued till five A.M. on the 30th, when it cleared sufficiently to 
give us a sight of the land, and of the heavy ice aground off Cape Gillman, the 
latter being five or six miles to the northward of us, in which situation we had 
deepened our soundings to fifty fathoms during the night’s drift. The state of 
the ice, and of the weather, not permitting us to move. Captain Sabine, being 
desirous of making some use of this unavoidable detention, and considering it 
at all times important to confirm magnetic observations obtained on shore in 
these high latitudes, by others taken upon the ice, employed himself in repeat- 
ing his series of observations on the dip of the needle, which he found to be 
88° 29. 12, differing only three minutes and a half from that obtained on shore 
on the 28th, a few leagues to the northward and eastward of our present sta- 
tion. The floe to which the ships were now secured was not more than six or 
seven feet in thickness, and was covered with innumerable pools of Avater, most 
of Avhich had communication Avith the sea, as Ave could with difficulty obtain any 
that Avas sufficiently fresh for drinking. In many parts, indeed, there were 
large holes through Avhich the sea Avas visible, and the under surface Avas much 
decayed and honey-combed, being nearly in that state Avhich the Greenland 
sailors call “ rotten.” Some of the officers amused themselves in skating on 
the pools, all of Avhich Avere hard frozen on the surface; and the men in sliding, 
foot-ball, and other games. By putting some drag-nets and oyster-dredges 
overboard, and suffering them to drag along the ground as the ship drifted Avith 
the ice, Ave obtained a few specimens of marine insects. 
