6 
VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 
l819 unexpectedly saw land at a great distance, bearing due north. This could be 
June, rio other than the land about Cape Farewell, of which the longitude, by our 
chronometers, being the same as that of the ship, was 42° 56' 41", agreeing 
nearly with that given in the tables of Maskelyne, Mendoza Rios, and Robertson, 
and in the Connaissance des Terns, being from 2° to 3° to the eastward of the po- 
sition assigned to it in most of the charts. This accounts for a remark, which is 
common among the whalers, that they always make this headland in coming 
from the eastward, sooner than they expect ; a circumstance which they natu- 
rally attribute to the effect of a westerly current. If the latitude of Cape Farewell 
be so far to the northward as 59° 37' 30", which is the mean of nine different 
authorities, our distance from it this day must have been more than forty 
leagues. It is by no means impossible that the bold land of Greenland may 
be distinguished at so great a distance ; and it is proper to remark, that the 
weather, at the time we saw it, was precisely that which is said to be most 
favourable for seeing objects at a great distance, namely, just before or after 
rain, when the humidity of the atmosphere increases its transparency *. 
Wed. 16. The wind again backed to the westward on the 16th, and we stretched to the 
Thur. 17. northward towards the land. On the evening of the 17th, being in lat. 58° 52', 
and long. 48° 12', the colour of the water was observed to be of a lighter green 
than that of the ocean in general ; but we could find no soundings with two 
hundred and ninety fathoms of line. The temperature of the sea at that depth, 
was 38|°, of the surface, 38|, and of the air, 38|°. 
Frid. 18. Early in the morning of the 18th, in standing to the northward, we fell in 
with the first “stream” of ice we had seen, and soon after saw several ice- 
bergs. At daylight the water had changed its colour to a dirty brownish tinge. 
We had occasion to remark the same in entering Davis’ Strait in 1818, when 
no difference in its temperature was perceptible. The temperature of the wa- 
ter this morning was 36|°, being 3° colder than on the preceding night ; a de- 
crease that was probably occasioned by our approach to the ice. W e ran through 
a narrow part of the stream, and found the ice beyond it to be “ packed” and 
heavy. The birds were more numerous than usual ; and, besides the fulmar 
petrels, boatswains, and kittiwakes, we saw, for the first time, some rotges 
( Alca Alle,J dovekies, or black guillemots (Colymbus Grylle,) and terns ( Sterna 
Hiru?ido,J the latter known best to seamen by the name of the Greenland swal- 
low. Soon after noon, being in lat. 59° 40', long. 47° 46', and the water being 
* Humboldt. Personal Narrative, I. pp. 81. 101, 102. 
