At the same time, a thermometer, which in the
open air was at 32 deg., in the surface of the sea was at 30 deg.; and, after being
immerged 100 fathoms deep for about fifteen or twenty minutes, came up at
34 deg., which is only 2 deg. above freezing.[5] Our latitude at this time was 55 deg.
8'.
The thick fog continued till two o'clock in the afternoon of the next day,
when it cleared away a little, and we made sail to the southward, wind
still at N.W. a gentle gale. We had not run long to the southward before we
fell in with the main field of ice extending from S.S.W. to E. We now bore
away to east along the edge of it; but at night hauled off north, with the
wind at W.N.W., a gentle gale, attended with snow.
At four in the morning on the 17th, stood again to the south; but was again
obliged to bear up on account of the ice, along the side of which we
steered betwixt E. and S.S.W., hauling into every bay or opening, in hopes
of finding a passage to the south.
