12th. Got the inftruments on fhore, and the tent pitched; but could not make any obfervations this day or the next, from the badness of the weather. 13th. Rain, and blowing hard: two of the Dutch fhips failed for Holland. 14th. The weather being fine and little wind, we began our obfervations. 18th. Completed the obfervations. Calm all day. During our stay, I again fet up the pendulum, but was not fo fortunate as before, never having been able to get an obfervation of a revolution of the fun, or even equal altitudes for the time. We had an opportunity of determining the refraction at midnight, which ananfwered within a few feconds to the calculation in Dr. Bradley's table, allowing for the barometer and thermometer. Being within fight of Cloven Cliff, I took a furvey of this part of Fair Haven, to connect it with the plan of the other part. Dr. Irving climbed up a mountain, to take its height with the barometer, which I determined at the fame time geometrically with great care. By repeated obfervations here we found the latitude to be 79° 44', which by the furvey correfponded exactly with the latitude of Cloven Cliff, determined before; the longitude 9° 50′ 45′′ E; dip 82° 8; variation 18° 57' W; which agrees alfo with the obfervation made on fhore in July. The tide flowed here half paft one, the fame as in Vogel Sang harbour. Opposite to the place where the inftruments ftood, was one of the most remarkarble Icebergs in this country. Icebergs are large bodies of ice filling the vallies between the high mountains; the face towards the fea is nearly perpendicular, and of a very lively light green colour. This was about three hundred feet high, with a cafcade of water iffuing out of it. The black mountains, white fnow, and beautiful colour of the ice, make a very romantick and uncommon picture. Large pieces frequently break off from the Icebergs, and fall with great noise into the water: we obferved one piece which had floated out into the bay, and grounded in twenty-four fathom; it was fifty feet high above the furface of the water, and of the fame beautiful colour as the Iceberg. I fhall I shall here mention fuch general obfervations as my short stay enabled me to make. The ftone we found was chiefly a kind of marble, which diffolved eafily in the marine acid. We perceived no marks of minerals of any kind, nor the leaft appearance of prefent, or remains of former Volcanoes. Neither did we meet with infects, or any fpecies of reptiles; not even the common earthworm. We faw no fprings or rivers, the water, which we found in great plenty, being all produced by the melting of the fnow from the mountains. During the whole time we were in these latitudes, there was no thunder or lightning. I must also add, that I never found what is mentioned by Marten (who is generally accurate in in his obfervations, and faithful in his accounts) of the fun at midnight resembling in appearance the moon; I faw no difference in clear weather between the fun at midnight and any other time, but what arose from a different degree of altitude; the brightness of the light appearing there, as well as elsewhere, to depend upon the obliquity of his rays. The fky was in general loaded with hard white clouds; fo that I do not remember to have ever feen the fun and the horizon both free from them even in the clearest weather. We could always perceive when we were approaching the ice, long before we faw it, by a bright appearance near the horizon, which the pilots called the blink of the ice. Hudson remarked that the fea where he met with ice was blue; but the green fea was free from it. I was particularly attentive to obferve this difference, but could never difcern it. The driftwood in these feas has given rise to various opinions and conje&tures, both as to its nature and the place of its growth. All that which we faw (except the pipe-ftaves taken notice of by Doctor Irving on the Low Ifland) was fir, and not worm-eaten. The place of its growth I had no opportunity of afcertaining. The nature of the ice was a principal object of attention in this climate. We found always a great fwell near the edge of it; but whenever we got within the loose ice, the water was conftantly fmooth. The loofe fields and flaws, as well as the interior part of the fixed ice, were flat, and low with the wind blowing |