TABLE OP DAYS’ WORKS. 
cxlv 
able error in the reckoning, as far as the longitude of 48°, the ship having- 
passed between two and three degrees to the southward of Cape Farewell. 
On approaching the coast of Greenland, immediately to the westward of that 
promontory, and within the 60th degree of latitude, we perceived the 
current which has been long known to come round Cape Farewell, and to 
set to the northward and westward along that shore. 
In returning across the Atlantic in October 1820, less regularity was observ- 
able in the errors of northing and southing in the dead reckoning, the differ- 
ence between the ship’s latitude by account, and that by observation, 
constantly varying from day to day, both in direction and amount. With 
respect to easting and westing, it is remarkable that in crossing the sea both 
ways, the ship was found to be generally a-head of the reckoning, although, 
from having made the same remark on the preceding voyage, I was particu- 
larly careful in allowing sufficient distance for the ship’s run through the 
water. If this circumstance did not arise from some unavoidable error, 
which, furnished as we were with excellent chronometers, can scarcely have 
been the case, it would appear that, between the 57th and 61st degree of lati- 
tude, the current sets to the westward in the months of May and June, and 
to the eastward in October. That the balance of this set is to the eastward 
is, however, proved by the fact that the bottles, and other floating substances, 
thrown out in the Atlantic, during several years past, between the parallels 
of 44° and 61|°, have come on shore in various parts, from the Orkneys to 
Cape Finisterre, but chiefly on the west coast of Ireland*, and all nearly at 
the same rate, of five miles per day. 
Of the current which we experienced in Davis’ Strait and Baffin’s Bay, 
I have already spoken, whenever it occurred, in the course of the foregoing 
Narrative. By this it would appear that during the summer and autumn 
there is, in this part of the Polar seas, a considerable set to the southward. In 
judging of the causes which may produce this general tendency of the super- 
ficial current, it will be proper to bear in mind two facts which we have had 
occasion to remark in the course of this and the preceding voyage ; first, that 
in a sea much incumbered with ice, a current is almost invariably produced im- 
mediately on the springing up of every breeze of wind ; and secondly, that in 
several instances where the ships have been beset in the ice, the direction of the 
* For this fact, as well as for that respecting the Lagullus Stream, I am indebted to the kindness 
of Major Rennell. 
