ewhere
hereabout; and I am rather inclined to attribute the very unusual and
cross sea we had in this neighbourhood to the existence of a bank, than
to the effect of a gale of wind which we had just before experienced;
and I cannot but regret that the commander of the ship did not try for
soundings at frequent intervals.

By the 25th July we had opened the entrance of Davis' Straits, and in
the afternoon spoke the Andrew Marvell, bound to England with a cargo of
fourteen fish. The master informed us that the ice had been heavier this
season in Davis' Straits than he had ever recollected, and that it lay
particularly close to the westward, being connected with the shore to
the northward of Resolution Island, and extending from thence within a
short distance of the Greenland coast; that whales had been abundant,
but the ice so extremely cross, that few could be killed. His ship, as
well as several others, had suffered material injury, and two vessels
had been entirely crushed between vast masses of ice in latitude 74 deg. 40'
N., but the crews were saved. We inquired anxiously, but in vain, for
intelligence respecting Lieutenant Parry, and the ships under his
command; but as 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 meetings.

On the 27th, being in latitude 57 deg. 44' 21" N., longitude 47 deg. 31' 14" W.,
and the weather calm we tried for 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, shewn by the register thermometer during the
descent, was from 52 deg. to 40.5; 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 deg., being half a degree higher at four hundred and fifty
than at six hundred and fifty fathoms, and four degre