Page:Journal of a Voyage to Greenland, in the Year 1821.djvu/190

140 that we saw it. The appearances which thus deceived us, proved to be nothing more than cape-fly-aways, as the sailors term them, or clouds resembling distant land. After a few hours' sailing, the water assumed the colour known to afford the favourite food to whales, for which, therefore, every one now anxiously looked. It was singular that we had now voyaged some thousands of miles, with the colour of the water as blue as indigo, which may in some measure account for the small number of whales that we had seen: and those few, were not resident but running fish, that is, travelling from one place to another. The temperature of this day was most delightful; the thermometer was at 40°, latitude by observation, 74° 64′, N., longitude 12° W.

After a strong gale from the westward during the whole of yesterday, accompanied by thick weather, which prevented our making much progress, the wind this morning abated, and changed to the south-east; by noon the weather became clear, and enabled us not only to pursue our course but to observe our situation; we were at the entrance of a very deep bay formed by the most extensive fields of ice, with which we had hitherto met; they extended very far beyond the reach of natural vision or command of the telescope from the mast-head, and in them neither crack nor fissure could be seen. They were unusually rugged, and encumbered with larger masses of solid ice than I had before seen, and