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.
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