REMARKABLE COLOUR OF THE SEA. 351 
The last day of August was foggy, with mo¬ 
derate variable winds. We steered principally 
SE. and S., but did not make much way. 
Sunday, 1st September .—The weather conti¬ 
nued foggy. The wind was easterly. Our course 
SE b S., true. During this day’s sailing, we 
passed through several veins or patches of a re¬ 
markable brown-qoloured, or sometimes yellow¬ 
ish-green coloured, water, presenting a striking 
contrast to the blue sea around them. These 
patches ran in various directions, generally form¬ 
ing long streaks or veins, extending as far as the 
eye could discern the peculiar colour. Their 
breadth was small, seldom exceeding forty or fifty 
yards, and sometimes much less considerable. The 
separation of the two qualities of water, the ordi¬ 
nary blue and the brown, was generally well de¬ 
fined. The appearance of the brown patches was 
similar to that of the muddy water issuing from a 
large river, at its confluence with the sea. A wa¬ 
ter somewhat similar, I observed, in the month of 
July 1820, in the Greenland Sea; and Captain 
Parry notices water of a similar appearance, ob¬ 
served on his entrance into Davis’ Strait, which 
he attributes to “ the admixture of a large por¬ 
tion of fresh water, supplied by the melting of the 
snow and ice A bucket of the peculiar co- 
* Journal of a Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West 
Passage, p. 7. 
