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.

On the 17th, at noon, we had passed to the southward of the Arctic
Circle, and from this latitude to that of about 58 deg., we had favourable
winds and weather; but we remarked on this, as on several other
occasions during this season, that a northerly breeze, contrary to
ordinary observation, brought more moisture with it than any other. In
the course of this run, we also observed more driftwood than we had ever
done before, which I thought might possibly be owing to the very great
prevalence of easterly winds this season driving it farther from the
coast of Greenland than usual.

On, the morning of the 24th, notwithstanding the continuance of a
favourable breeze, we met, in the latitude of 58-1/2 deg., so heavy a swell
from the northeastward as to make the ship labour violently for
four-and-twenty hours. On the morning of the 25th we had again an
easterly wind, which in a few hours reduced us to the close-reefed
topsails and reefed courses. At eight P.M. it freshened to a gale, which
brought us under the main-topsail and storm-staysails, and at seven the
following morning it increased to a gale of such violence from N.E.b.N.
as does not very often occur at sea in these latitudes. The gusts were
at times so tremendous as to set the sea quite in a foam, and
threatened to tear the sails out of the bolt-ropes. The wind gradually
drew to the westward, with dry weather, after the gale began to abate,
and at six A.M. we were enabled to bear up and run to the eastward with
a strong gale at N.W.

The indications of the barometer previous to and during this gale
deserve to be noticed, because it is only about Cape Farewell that, in
coming from the northward down Davis's Strait, this instrument begins to
speak a language which has ever been intelligible to us _as a weather
glass_. On the 24th, notwithstanding the change of wind from north to
east, the mercury rose from 29.51 on that morning, to 29.72 at three
A.M. the following d