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PHIPPS’S JOURNAL. $47
The twenty-feventh, at: midnight the latitude obferved was 74° 26’. The wind
came to the S. W., and continued fo all day, with a little rain and {now. The cold
did not increafe. We fteered N. by E. At feven in the morning the variation, by a
mean of feveral obfervations, was found to be 20° 38’ W. We were in the evening,
by all our reckonings, in the latitude of the fouth part of Spitfbergen, without any
appearance of ice or fight of land, and with a fair wind.
The twenty eighth, lefs wind in the morning than the day before, with rain and
fleet : continued {teering to the northward. At five in the afternoon picked up a
piece of drift wood, which was fir, and not worm-eaten : founded in two hundred and
ninety fathom ; no ground. At fix the longitude by the watch was 7° 50’ E.: be-
tween ten and eleven at night, faw the land to the eaftward at ten or twelve leagues
diftance. At midnight, dip 81° 7’.
The twenty-ninth, the wind northerly; ftood clofe in with the land. The coatt
appeared to be neither habitable nor acceflible ; for it was formed by high, barren,
black rocks, without the leaft marks of vegetation ; in many places bare and pointed,
in other parts covered’with fnow, appearing even above the clouds: the vallies be-
tween the high clifls were filled with fnow or ice. This profpect would have fug-
gelted the idea of perpetual winter, had not the mildnefs of the weather, the {mooth*
water, bright funthine, and conftant day-light, given a cheerfulnefs and novelty to the
whole of this ftriking and romantic f{cene.
I had an opportunity of making many obfervations near the Black point. Latitude
obferved at noon 77° 59/ 11”. ‘The difference of latitude, from the laft obfervation
on the twenty-feventh ‘at midnight to this day at noon, would, according to the old
inethod of marking the log, have been two hundred and thirteen miles; which agrees
exactly with the obfervation. At three in the afternoon, brought to and founded one
hundred and ten fathoms; foft muddy ground : hoifted the boat and tried the f{tream ;
found it, both by the common and Bouguer’s log (which agreed exactly) to run half
a knot north; Black Point bearing E. N. E. At four the longitude by the watch
was 9° 31’ E.: at eight the variation, by the mean of nineteen obfervations, 11° 53’ W.
I could not account from any apparent caufe for this great change in the variation :
the weather was fine, the water {mooth, and every precaution we could think of ufed
to make the obfervations accurate. The dip was 80° 26’. Plying to the northward.
The thirtieth, at midnight, the latitude by obfervation was 78° 0’ 50’. At four in
the morning, by Lord Charles Cavendifh’s thermometer the temperature of the water
at the depth of a hundred and eighteen fathoms was 31° of Fahrenheit’s; that of the
air was at the fame time 40° and a half. At nine in the morning we faw a {hip in the
N. W., ftanding in for the land. Having little wind this morning, and that northerly,
I ftood in for the land, with an intention to have watered the fhip, and got out im-
mediately, but was prevented by the calm which followed. At noon the latitude ob-
ferved was 78° 8’; the dip 79°30’. At two in the afternoon we founded in a hundred
and fifteen fathoms ; muddy bottom: at the fame time we fent down Lord Charles
Cavendifh’s thermometer, by which we found the temperature of the water at that
depth to be 33°; that of the water at the furface was at the fame time 40°, and in the
air 44° and three fourths. Fahrenheit’s thermometer plunged in water brought up
from the fame depth, ftood at 38° and ahalf. ‘This evening the matter of a Green-
land fhip came on board, who told me, that he was juft come out of the ice which lay
to the weftward about fixteen leagues off, and that three fhips had been loft this year,
two Englifh, and one Dutch. ‘lhe weather fine, and rather warm. At fix in the
evening the longitude by my watch was 9” 28’ 45% E.
Al B28 July
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