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5 in the Western Arctic Sea. pilot carrying the ship too far to the westward. But the alarm was soon over, and no bad consequences followed from the acci dent. It is common, you know, for land folks to charge us seamen with not being over attentive to our religious duties. It ought to be considered, however, that winds and waves know no distinc tion of days and times. The operations on ship-board must, of necessity, be performed at all hours, and it is not surprising, that by habit the sailor should become less regular in his devotions than persons on land, whose time is wholly at their own disposal. To show you, however, that the charge against us is not always well founded, you must know, that on Sunday the 16th, divine service was performed on board both ships, and attended by every officer and man who could be spared from the indispensable duties on deck. Monday the Ijth, being off the coast of Yorkshire, distant from twelve to fourteen miles, we discharged our pilot from the Thames. He carried back with him a number of letters, among which, were a few lines from me, just to say that we were then all well. In the afternoon of Tuesday the 18th, we had a dis tant view of the mountains beyond Aberdeen, on the north coast of Scotland ; and, on the following afternoon, we came in sight of Fair Island, situated between the Orkney and the Shetland isles. Since Sunday morning the wind has been favourable, and the weather pleasant. Several flocks of divers, a bird frequently seen in Davis’s Strait and in Baffin’s Bay, have come near us ; also that kind, called by seamen the puffin. The people caught a number of excellent cod and coal-fish off Fair Island. On Thursday the 20th, we were detained by calms ; but, in the evening, the wind springing up, carried us round the north point of the Orkney isles, distant from two to three miles. From what I have learned on board, the appearance of these islands may be considered as a sort of intermediate step between the favoured land which we have left, and the dreary regions to which we are bound. In the morning we passed a Danish whaler, on her voy age to Davis’s Strait; but she steered a course more to the north ward than we did. In the morning of Friday the 21 st, we lost sight of the Orkneys, and, in the evening, we descried Rona and Bara, two small islands, the former inhabited, situated a little to the northward of the parallel of 50% and the most northern of the western islands of Scotland. In the neighbourhood of these isles we saw vast numbers of sea-fowl of different kinds, which resort thither and to other remote islands in that quarter, situated in the open sea, where proper food is found in abundance. I mentioned that the Danish ship kept a course to the northward of us : but we steertd according to the opinion of the most