gale of the 20th, and which the smoothness of the water greatly facilitated. In the evening, a breeze sprung up from the southward, clearing away the dark-looking clouds, and giving us once more a view of the clear sky: the sun, when near the horizon, presented that remarkable flattened appearance which I have before described. The horizontal diameter, on being measured, was 32′ 35″, or in very near accordance with that given in the Nautical Almanac, whilst its vertical diameter was only 27′ 35″, showing a difference of refraction between its upper and lower limb amounting to five minutes.
Jan. 29.The wind freshened from the southward, but the ice was too close for us to make any way through it; we therefore kept dodging under easy sail, in a hole of water, until it became too small for us any longer to sail about, and we were compelled to have recourse to the largest piece of ice we could get hold of, which, having secured between the ships, we furled all the sails, and were carried away with the pack back to the northward, without being able to make an effort to maintain our ground. During the afternoon we had thick weather, with snow; the wind had increased to a gale, with violent squalls from the southward, but there was no swell amongst the ice, and we experienced neither anxiety nor inconvenience, beyond the natural vexation at finding we were losing all the southing we had gained by much exertion and hard labour.
