156 
one side, the water is only three or four 
fathoms deep, on the other fifteen. The 
danger at most times, especially in 
storms, is very great. Ships are irresis¬ 
tibly drawn in; the rudder loses its 
power, and the waves beat as high as the 
masts, so that an escape is almost mira¬ 
culous; yet at the reflux, and in very 
still weather, the inhabitants will venture 
in boats, for the sake of fishing, Arct, 
Zool. 2d edit. vol. i. p. 56. 
On arriving at these southerly lati¬ 
tudes, the appearance of the moon and 
stars was, to use the language of Cap¬ 
tain Phipps, almost as extraordinary a 
phenomenon as the sun at midnight, when 
we first got within the Arctic circle. 
On the 20th, lay becalmed off Fair Isle, 
a barren spot, about three miles long, si¬ 
tuated midway between the Shetland 
and Orkney Isles, and inhabited by about 
170 persons'. The shores are high and 
rugged; greatest depth of the water near 
