for the purpose of ascertaining the difference of its meridian influence, which was only one degree, the thermometer being 30° at meridian day, and 29° at midnight, if I may so term it.
May 11. The long-wished-for north wind enabled us to make five degrees of east longitude, and to regain the ice in a new situation, where we found the hummocks much larger than I had before seen. The surface of the ocean being only just rippled, I was pleased to observe the effect which a lofty swell had upon those immense bodies of ice: the undulating swell that put them in motion, caused them to rise and fall in the most graceful manner possible. As we proceeded on our eastern course, the pieces of ice increased in size, so as often to shut out the appearance of water at a short distance from the ship. Latitude 76° 11′ north.
May 12. Going on deck just as the morning watch was set, I beheld the most magnificent masses of ice, bearing a different character to those I had before seen; they were flat, and of several hundred yards in length and breadth; a vessel, at no great distance from us, was, like ourselves, sailing through them. The weather now began to be much colder, but, although severe, and although the thermometer was much lower than I had at any time seen it in England, the climate was so exhilarating, that its effects were different from those I had ever felt in my native country. The sea was now observed to assume the proper colour of dark water; and more birds being about the ship than had been
