without paining the sight by its refulgence. So far was it from bestowing warmth, that the air appeared more intensely cold than it had been during the whole of the preceding day. The clouds, in parallel lines immediately above the descending luminary, exhibited, in the most beautiful manner, all the varieties of the rainbow; the dusky red and deep blue being the most predominant colours. If to all this we add the dazzling reflection which glittered from the snowcapp'd summits of the rugged mountains, and the shining fantastic forms of the floating icebergs in the Straits, the prospect will easily be imagined to have excited in our minds those feelings, which induce the mariner, as well as the poet,

"To look, through Nature, up to Nature's God !”

At midnight we passed an immense iceberg, which roared like a thunder storm; occasioned, perhaps, by some cavity in its

side, through which the sea was bursting. It was nearly a calm; and the surface of

the sea was quite smooth at the moment, attended with that gentle undulating swell which is always prevalent in deep waters.

JULY 29th. In the morning we were obliged to tack about, in order to avoid a large assemblage of drifting masses, termed by the old seamen a patch of ice: the seals were leaping about in all directions, and some few sea-calves were seen. The thermometer in the Captain's cabin, with a rousing fire, stood at 43o. At noon we were plying to windward off Savage Island, which is the next land to the west of Cape Resolution Island, on the north shore. Savage Isle, lying very low, has not so much snow upon it, in general, as the other parts of the coast hereabouts. The next land to the westward of it is called Terra Nivea; owing to its having some mountains,

mountains, about thirty miles from the sea, entirely covered with snow. During the remaining part of this day we continued our course up the Straits, but with the weather almost calm.

JULY 30th.-We were entirely surrounded this day with a patch of broken ice, and it extended as far as the eye could reach. The sun shining bright over the calm surface of the sea, called forcibly to my mind a description I had once read of the Ruins of Palmyra, in the Syrian Desert; the scattered fragments of ice bearing a strong resemblance to the ruins of temples, statues, columns, &c. spread in confusion over a vast plain.

JULY 31st.-Early in the morning of this day we reached a remarkable cape, called Saddle Back, from the resemblance that it bears to a saddle: and as we were imme

diately