162 
VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 
1820. 
April. 
Wed. 5. 
ning to scratch upon the stone in question, the initials of his name *. This 
circumstance is only worthy of notice, from its proving to how considerable 
a distance this party had rambled, and how completely they were in error as 
to the direction in which they had been travelling ; the distance between the 
two places being twenty-five miles. I was in hopes, also, of finding out by 
this means, the situation of a large lake which Mr. Fife reported having seen, 
and from which he brought a small fish, of the trout kind ; but the more I 
questioned him and his party, the more I was convinced of the little depend- 
ance to be placed on the account of persons circumstanced as they were, 
and of their utter ignorance as to the part of the island in which the lake 
was to be found. 
In the evening, a parhelion was seen on each side of the sun, and a 
third above it, as usual, at the angular distance of 22° 20', the two first being 
strongly marked by the prismatic colours, and the other very indistinctly. 
Early on the morning of the 3d, we observed an effect of refraction very 
common in seas having much ice. It consists in the images of hummocks of 
ice, reflected and inverted somewhat in this manner, 
in which case, from the apparent shape of these images, the ice is techni- 
cally said to “ tree.” This appearance is considered by the Greenland 
sailors, as an indication of clear water in the direction in which it is seen, 
which was certainly not the case this morning. 
At nine A.M., on the 5th, the weather being very fine, and the thermometer 
at — 18°, we observed a halo round the sun, which was at times nearly 
complete. There was, as usual, a parhelion on each side of the’ sun, at the 
same altitude, and distinctly prismatic. There was also a third parhelion 
* When Mr. Fife and his party returned from that excursion, it was a matter of surprise 
to us, to see how fresh Fisher was, and how little he seemed to regard what had happened, 
as any thing out of the common way, of which, indeed, the circumstance just related, is 
also a proof. When asked, on his first arrival on board on that occasion, what they had 
lived upon, “ Lived upon,” said Fisher, dryly, “ the Duke of Wellington never lived so 
well. We had grouse for breakfast, grouse for dinner, and grouse for supper, to be 
sure !” 
