Nothing of moment occurred for several days; but the wind veered
to the westward on the 30th, and increased to a fresh gale, with
an irregular sea and heavy rain, which brought us under our
close-reefed topsails. At half past one, P.M., we began to cross
the space in which the "Sunken Land of Buss" is laid down in
Steel's chart from England to Greenland; and, in the course of
this and the following day, we tried for soundings several times
without success.

Early in the morning of the 18th of June, in standing to the
northward, we fell in with the first "stream" of ice we had seen,
and soon after saw several icebergs. At daylight the water had
changed its colour to a dirty brownish tinge. The temperature of
the water was 36 1/2 deg., being 3 deg. colder than on the preceding
night; a decrease that was probably occasioned by our approach to
the ice. We ran through a narrow part of the stream, and found the
ice beyond it to be "packed" and heavy. The birds were more numerous
than usual; and, besides the fulmar peterels, boatswains, and
kittiwakes, we saw, for the first time, some rotges, dovekies, or
black guillemots, and terns, the latter known best to seamen by
the name of the Greenland swallow.

On the clearing up of a fog on the morning of the 24th, we saw a
long chain of icebergs, extending several miles, in a N.b.W. and
S.b.E. direction; and, as we approached them, we found a quantity
of "floe-ice" intermixed with them, beyond which, to the westward,
nothing but ice could be seen. At noon we had soundings, with one
hundred and twenty fathoms of line, on a bottom of fine sand,
which makes it probable that most of the icebergs were aground in
this place. In the afternoon we sailed within the edge of the ice,
as much as a light westerly wind would admit, in order to approach
the western land. Some curious effects of atmospheric refraction
were observed this evening, the low ice being at times considerably
raised in the horizon, and constantly altering its appearance.

The weather being nearly calm on the morning of the 25th, all the
boats were kept ahead, to tow the ships through the ice to the
westward. It remained tolerably open till four P.M., when a
breeze, freshening up from the eastward, caused the ice, through
which we had lately been towing, to close together so rapidly,
that we had scarcely time to hoist up the boats before the ships
were immovably "beset." The clear sea which we had left was about
fou