to 35 deg., whereas at the same season last year it rose no higher than 32 deg. anywhere in the neighbourhood, and remained even so high as that only for a very short time.  This circumstance seemed to indicate the total absence of ice from those parts of the sea which had last autumn been wholly covered by it.  Accordingly, on the 5th, being thirty miles beyond the spot in which we had before contended with numerous difficulties from ice, not a piece was to be seen, except one or two solitary bergs; and it was not till the following day, in latitude 72 deg. 45’, and longitude 64 deg. 44’, or about one hundred and twenty-seven miles to the eastward of where we made our escape on the 9th of September, 1824, that we fell in with a body of ice so loose and open as scarcely to oblige us to alter our course for it.  At three P.M. on the 7th, being in latitude 72 deg. 30’, and longitude 60 deg. 05’, and having, in the course of eighty miles that we had run through it, only made a single tack, we came to the margin of the ice, and got into an open sea on its eastern side.  In the whole course of this distance, the ice was so much spread that it would not, if at all closely “packed,” have occupied one third of the same space.  There were at this time thirty-nine bergs in sight, and some of them certainly not less than two hundred feet in height.

On the 8th, being in latitude 71 deg. 55’, longitude 60 deg. 30’, and close to the margin of the ice, we fell in with the Alfred, Ellison, and Elizabeth, whalers, of Hull, all running to the northward, even at this season, to look for whales.

As the whaling-ships were not homeward bound, having as yet had indifferent success in the fishery, I did not consider it necessary to send despatches by them.  After an hour’s communication with them, and obtaining such information of a public nature as could not fail to be highly interesting to us, we made sail to the southward; while we observed them lying to for some time after, probably to consult respecting the unwelcome information with which we had furnished them as to the whales, not one of which, by some extraordinary chance, we had seen since leaving Neill’s Harbour.  As this circumstance was entirely new to us, it seems not unlikely that the whales are already beginning to shift their ground, in consequence of the increased attacks which have been made upon them of late years in that neighbourhood.

On the 10th we had an easterly wind, which, gradually freshening to a gale, drew up the Strait from the southward, and blew strong for twentyfour hours from that quarter.  The wind moderated on the 11th, but on the following day another gale came on, which for nine or ten hours blew in most tremendous gusts from the same quarter, and raised a heavy sea.  We happily came near no ice during the night, or it would scarcely have been possible to keep the ship clear of it.  It abated after daylight on the 13th, but continued to blow an ordinary gale for twelve hours longer.