294 
VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 
1820. 
Sept. 
VYV 
Sun. 17. The wind shifting to the south-west on the morning of the 17th, we were 
nearly beset by the loose ice closing upon us, the ships being now on the 
windward side of the floe. After four hours’ labour we succeeded in getting 
clear, and made sail among loose ice to the south-east. This course, how- 
ever, we were not able to continue long, as the ice led us, in the course of 
the day, considerably to the northward ; and, in the evening, an iceberg 
was selected, out of the numerous ones in sight, to which the ships were 
made fast before dark, it being impossible to keep them under-way during 
the night. We were not sorry to find some swell affecting the ships, such 
as we had not before experienced for more than twelve months, affording an 
indication of an open sea at no great distance from us. The loose and heavy 
pieces of ice which drifted-in under the lee of the berg, and on which the 
ships occasionally struck with some force, kept the people constantly em- 
ployed during the night, in veering and heaving in to avoid coming in 
contact with them. Some bears were heard growling upon the berg, and 
some seals, ivory-gulls, and little auks, the latter in small flocks, were seen 
in the course of the day. 
Mon. 18. On the 18th, the weather continued too foggy to move the ships in the 
forenoon. We tried for soundings with eight hundred and ninety-seven 
fathoms of line, without finding bottom; our latitude, by account, being 
68° 24' 03" ; longitude 63° 08' 12". The temperature of the sea at the depth 
of three hundred and eighteen fathoms, was 30°, that of the surface being 
the same, and of the air 29°. 
Soon after noon, the weather being somewhat less foggy, we cast off and 
made sail to the eastward. The ice here consisted generally of loose but 
heavy pieces, among which there was scarcely room to sail, and here and 
there a floe which obliged us to make several tacks. We also passed several 
Original 
weight in 
grains. 
Weight on 
coming to 
the surface. 
Increase 
of 
weight. 
Weight 
three hours 
afterwards. 
Decrease 
in those 
three hours. 
Ash . . . 
1425 
2324 
899 
2291 
33 
Fir . . . 
863 
2112 
1249 
1964 
00 
r-H 
Oak . . . 
1421 
2252 
831 
2201 
51 
Elm . . . 
1220 
2299 
1079 
2201 
98 
