14 
GREENLAND VOYAGE. 
break of the 14th, that a piece of ice had been 
passed ; and soon afterwards, that some “ brash- 
streams” were in sight, which induced us to tack, 
with the wind at ESE., and stand to the south¬ 
ward. The influence of ice in producing fogs 
was, on this occasion, strikingly exemplified. We 
had, indeed, experienced hazy weather for a day 
or two before; but, on our approach to the ice, 
it became more and more dense, until it obtained 
the usual obscurity and character of the Arctic 
fogs. I never before saw ice near this position, 
being about 150 miles to the eastward of Iceland, 
and in so low a latitude as 64°.30'N. It must have 
been brought hither by a continuance of strong 
gales from the NW. Its effect on the climate 
of Iceland, the whole of which island the ice 
appeared at this time to envelope, must have 
proved both disagreeable and baneful to the in¬ 
habitants. In summer, the ice generally retires 
far from the coast; but during the preceding 
18 months, it is probable that the northern parts 
of the island were never free from its chilling in¬ 
fluence. Towards the end of August 1821, a sea¬ 
son when the ice should have retired to its great¬ 
est distance from the shore, I found the promon¬ 
tory of Langan ess encompassed by large streams of 
heavy drift-ice, which, it appears, never left the 
coast the whole of the summer. The effect of this 
