He mentioned that the wind had been blowing strong from
the northward for some time, which would probably have cleared Baffin's
Bay of ice, we were disposed to hope favourably of his progress.
The clouds assumed so much the appearance of icebergs this evening as to
deceive most of the passengers and crew; but their imaginations had been
excited by the intelligence we had received from the Andrew Marvell that
she had only parted from a cluster of them two days previous to our
meeting.
On the 27th, being in latitude 57 degrees 44 minutes 21 seconds North,
longitude 47 degrees 31 minutes 14 seconds West and the weather calm, we
tried our soundings but did not reach the bottom. The register
thermometer was attached to the line just above the lead, and is supposed
to have descended six hundred and fifty fathoms. A well-corked bottle was
also fastened to the line two hundred fathoms above the lead and went
down four hundred and fifty fathoms. The change in temperature shown by
the register thermometer during the descent was from 52 to 40.5 degrees;
and it stood at the latter point when taken out of the tin case. The
temperature of the water brought up in the bottle was 41 degrees, being
half a degree higher at four hundred and fifty than at six hundred and
fifty fathoms and four degrees colder than the water at the surface which
was then at 45 degrees, whilst that of the air was 46 degrees. This
experiment in showing the water to be colder at a great depth than at the
surface, and in proportion to the increase of the descent, coincides with
the observations of Captain Ross and Lieutenant Parry on their late
voyage to these seas, but is contrary to the results obtained by Captain
Buchan and myself on our recent voyage to the north between Spitzbergen
and Greenland, in which sea we invariably found the water brought from
any great depth to be warmer than that at the surface.
On the 28th we tacked to avoid an extensive stream of sailing ice. The
temperature of the water fell to 39.5 degrees when we were near it, but
was at 41 degrees when at the distance of half a mile. The thermometer in
the air remained steadily at 40 degrees. Thus the proximity of this ice
was not so decidedly indicated by the decrease of the temperature of
either the air or water as I have before witnessed, which was probably
owing to the recent arrival of the stream at this point and its passing
at too quick a rate for the effectual diffusion of its chilling influence
beyond a short distance.
