76 
GREENLAND VOYAGE. 
transparent, they could be seen descending to the 
keel, and playing about the rudder for a consider¬ 
able time, and then proceeding to a little distance, 
before they ascended to breathe. They “ blew” 
with much force: an act of expiration always, I 
observed, succeeded their first appearance at the 
surface ; and they invariably descended with the 
lungs inflated. 1 heir breathing resembles a puff 
of steam or air ; a pause of perhaps two or three 
seconds occurs between each act of respiration, 
and after it has been continued for eight or ten 
times, the animal generally descends : but some¬ 
times it will remain for several minutes afterwards 
at the surface, without either breathing percepti¬ 
bly or moving. 
An observation for the latitude, on the 5th of 
June, gave 74° 18'. From this it appeared, that 
we had drifted with the ice nearly 100 miles to 
the southward, besides a distance probably nearly 
as great to the westward, in an interval of only 
twelve days. Our course during this time had 
been rather to the northward than otherwise. 
On the 6th, in the morning, all the rigging of 
the ship was thickly covered with a double fringe 
of snowy crystals, consisting of the particles of fog 
that had been deposited during the night on the 
opposite sides of the ropes, as they were successive¬ 
ly presented to the wind, on the ship being repeat- 
