OUTWARD PASSAGE. 
15 
on the temperature was most striking. In descend¬ 
ing from latitude 71° to 67°, the highest observa¬ 
tion of the thermometer was 88°, and when close 
in-shore, near Langaness, it was 35° at mid-day, and 
32° early in the morning. It might be reasonably 
expected, that such a degree of cold in the height 
of summer would be destructive to vegetation, 
and, consequently, most dangerous to the cattle, 
whose supply of herbage in this quarter is at all 
times scanty ; yet, in the interior, w r e are inform¬ 
ed, by the Danish journals of the period, that the 
summer of 1821 was uncommonly warm. 
April, 1 5th .—At day-break we stood in with 
the ice; but were soon stopped in our farther pro¬ 
gress to the eastward, by a heavy and extensive patch 
of compact ice. After plying several hours to the 
southward, with the hope of being able to double 
it, I found it still extending to Windward, as far 
as the eye could discern from the mast-head. As 
it appeared to be merely a point of ice jutting 
out into the sea towards the south, and was, in 
some parts, of no great breadth, I determined to 
attempt to force a passage through it. We ac¬ 
cordingly put the ship in contact with the narrow¬ 
est part of the ice, through which, though it was 
very hard and heavy, and considerably agitated 
by the swell, we accomplished a passage in about 
an hour. Some seals were seen on a few of the 
