APPENDIX. 
405 
The “ Heine Hortense ” diminished her speed. A 
rope thrown across one of the towing-ropes enabled 
Lord Dufferin to haul one of his boats to our corvette. 
He himself came to dine with us, and to be present 
at the ceremony of crossing the polar circle. As to 
the “ Saxon ,” M. de la ftonciere perceived by this time 
that the worthy Englishman had presumed too much on 
his power. The “ Saxon ” was evidently incapable of 
following us. The captain, therefore, made her a signal 
that she was to take her own course, to try and reach 
Jan Mayen ; and if she could not succeed, to direct her 
course on Onundarfiord, and there to wait for us. The 
English vessel fell rapidly astern, her hull disappeared, 
then her sails, and in the evening every trace of her 
smoke had faded from the horizon. 
*#%***# 
In the evening, the temperature grew gradually 
colder; that of the water underwent a more rapid and 
significant change. At twelve at night it was only three 
degrees centig. (about 37° Fahr.). At that moment the 
vessel plunged into a bank of fog, the intensity of which 
we were enabled to ascertain, from the continuance of 
daylight in these latitudes, at this time of the year. 
These are tokens that leave no room to doubt that 
we are approaching the solid ice. True enough :— 
at two o’clock in the morning the officer on watch 
sees close to the ship a herd of seals, inhabitants of the 
field ice. A few minutes later the fog clears up sud¬ 
denly ; a ray of sunshine gilds the surface of the sea, 
lighting up millions of patches of sparkling white, ex¬ 
tending to the farthest limit of the horizon. These are 
the detached hummocks which precede and announce 
the field ice; they increase in size and in number 
as we proceed. At three o’clock in the afternoon we 
find ourselves in front of a large pack which blocks up 
