Volltext Seite (XML)
10 Letters written during the late I'oyage of Discovery LETTER IV. Dear Brother, At Sea, 23d June, 1819. My last journal-letter brought down our proceedings to the 26'th of last month, since which day the weather has been variable, but my health and spirits have been invariably good. It is Dr. Johnson, I think, who speaks of a worthy gentleman who, front an early point of life, kept a regular record of the state and changes of the weather. At the age of threescore and ten or so, the result of his observations was, that the weather was change able. This notable discovery might satisfy the person who, in cold, wet, or boisterous seasons, could resort to Iris warm room and comfortable tire : but for people in our situation and our profession, something more determinate is not only desirable but absolutely necessary, to enable us to prepare and provide against whatever change in the atmosphere may occur. The bad sailing of the Griper when before the wind, precisely the time when we ought to push forward as much as possible, is a most unfortunate quality; which her good sailing upon a wind will not, I fear, be sufficient to compensate. When the wind is quite fair, therefore, the Hecla must either take her in tow, or lie to for her, from time to time, till she make up with her consort. How much this circumstance, and in such a voyage too, mortifies the com panies of both ships, it is impossible for you as a landsman to imagine. The most remarkable occurrences, since my letter of the 2t>th past, are the unexpected discovery of land on Tuesday the 15th of this month, at a great distance to the northward, and the falling in with floating ice for the first time yesterday. When land was observed we were on the meridian of west longitude 4 2° 57', which is that of Cape Farewell, the southernmost point of the Greenland coast. But as that cape lies in north latitude 59° 37|', and we were in 57° 26', our distance coinciding with the difference of latitude was about 2° 12' or 132 miles, or 44 leagues. Here, squire, is another opportunity for applying your skill in calculation. The eye of the observer being raised twenty feet above the surface of the sea, and the summit of Cape Fare well being visible in the horizon at the distance of 132 nautical, not English miles, what must be the height of the mountains at the Cape ; ail regard to the refraction of light and the irregular curvature of the earth being laid out of the computation ? The ice we met with yesterday is what, in the language of Greenland fishers, is called stream ice, or a number of loose