SCOEESBY’S SOUND, —CUE11ENTS. 223 
inferior streams. By the action of the latter, it 
was presumed, a quantity of icebergs that were ob¬ 
served on our entrance to he within Cape Brew¬ 
ster, were, in the course of three days, carried out 
quite beyond this headland ; while, by the action 
of the former, operating at the same time, we 
found the ships so retarded, that on attempting 
to heat out of the Sound, with a south-easterly 
wind, we could make little or no progress. 
Besides these currents, there is also a regular 
tide of considerable strength, but of a very pecu¬ 
liar character, being so superficial, that it carries 
shallow floating bodies along with it; while those 
extending to the depth of several fathoms, are lit¬ 
tle or nothing affected by it. Its depth, I imagine, 
is sometimes not more than a fathom : For when, 
on leaving the Sound, we had arrived between the 
two headlands forming its entrance, we hove to for 
the purpose of sounding, and we were much aston¬ 
ished by the nature of the ship’s drifting. The 
sails being all aback, the ship’s head south-east, 
and the wind south-west, our drift ought to have 
been towards the ENE. or NE.; but according 
to the wake of the ship (the eddy produced in 
the sea by the ship’s motion), she appeared to be 
drifting towards the NW., or directly a-stern. 
It would seem, that the lower parts of the ship 
were in still water; while a very superficial stra¬ 
tum, being the stream of the tide, was running 
