When the
breeze suddenly came on she was still absent, and, being obliged
to wait for some time to pick her up, the Hecla was about dusk
separated several miles from us.
I was sorry to perceive, on the morning of the 1st of September,
that the appearance of the ice was by no means favourable to our
object of sailing to the northward, along the Sturges Bourne
Islands; but at ten A.M., the edge being rather more slack, we
made all sail, with a very light air of southerly wind, and the
weather clear, warm, and pleasant. We were at noon in lat. 66 deg. 03'
35", and in long. 83 deg. 33' 15", in which situation a great deal of
land was in sight to the northward, though apparently much broken
in some places. From N.E. round to S.S.E. there was still nothing
to be seen but one wide sea uninterruptedly covered with ice as
far as the eye could reach.
At forty-five minutes past one P.M. we had come to the end of the
clear water, and prepared to shorten sail, to await some
alteration in our favour. At this time the weather was so warm
that we had just exposed a thermometer to the sun to ascertain the
temperature of its rays, which could not have been less than 70 deg.
or 80 deg., when a thick fog, which had for some hours been curling
over the hills of Vansittart Island, suddenly came on, creating so
immediate and extreme a change, that I do not remember to have
ever experienced a more chilling sensation.
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