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740 KERCUELEN’S VOYAGE TO THE NORTIi.
uneafinefs; but on the fifth the gale abated, the thermometer, which the day before
was four degrees below the freezing point, was now three degrees higher, from whick
I drew an aufpicious foreboding of finer weather: in effect, the wind changed to the
S. E., blowing a little frefh, by eight in the evening, when I reckoned myfeli S. of the
largeit of the ifles of Birds, at eleven leagues diftant. I {teered towards the north to fall
in with it; but I faw no ifland, doubtlefs from the currents to the weft being ftronger
than what I had efteemed them. WhenN. of the iflands of Birds, which I conjectured
myfelf to be from the run I-had made, as well as from there being a calmer fea, the
confequence of being between lands, I fteered N. E. to fall in with the coaft, and to
make it the fooner.
The fixteenth, at eight o’clock in the morning, diftant fifteen leagues, I defcried
mount Jeugel, bearing N. E. This mountain, or rather cape, which advances far te
fea, rifes very high above the horizon ; I think it may be difcerned in fair weather
twenty leagues at fea. It muft be remarked, that as the high lands of Iceland are almoft
wholly and continually covered with fnow, and refemble each other in colour, in order
to diftinguifh one from the other, refpect muft be had to their height and fhape. Hav-
ing taken the latitude under this cape, | found by its bearings that it is rightly laid down
in the charts; but its northern point is not fufhiciently far ftretched out upon them to
the N. N. EF. The currents here run N.; the variation 31°. Between the iflands of
Birds and cape Jeugel, there is a large bay, called the Bay of Hannefiord ; it is little
known to the fifhermen, and my examination of it was reftricted to finding that fevera!
fine rivers empty themfelves into it, and that to the S. of this bay there is an ifland
under which there is good anchorage, fheltered from all winds, in four fathoms water.
Continuing my courfe to the N. E., at two o’clock, I made the point of Brederwick,
or Brederfiord. The gulph of Brederwick, which is between the point bearing that
name and mount Jeugel, is very {pacious and very deep. It is twelve leagues wide at
the mouth, and receives many large rivers: there are in it many iflands, behind which
I am perfuaded there muft be excellent anchorage, but they are not known. ‘The fifh-
ermen even have not frequented this before the three laft years: there is notwithftand-
ing a quantity of cod caught here. When the winds are northerly, there is a good
mooring at the northern part of the bay, in from fifteen to twenty fathoms water, with
afandy bottom: fhips frequently anchor here, but it is fafe only during the prevalence
of northerly winds.
The feventeenth, in the morning, the wind eafterly, I {tood in towards point Bredere
wick, which much not be approached nearer than to two cables length, on account of
a fand or fhelve which {tretches out to fea from that point. When I had doubled it, E
diftinguifhed, notwith{tanding the fog, more than fourlcore fifhing veflels. 1 fteered for
the middle of them, confifting half of French, half of Dutch, and hoifted a white and
blue flag at the fore-top (the fignal agreed upon) to make myfelf known. I {poke fe-
veral French fifhermen, in order to learn news of the fleet, and what the fucceis of the
fihery. 1 fpoke a Denmarker, from whom I learnt that he had already taken ten lafts,
a confiderable quantity for a month’s fifhing, for a lait is fourteen tons. He added,
that he had taken fix lafts in the Wefterman iflands, where he only {topped a week.
There is 32° variation at the point of Brederwick : we obferved it many times, as well
by correfponding elevations, and by meridional obfervations ; for every body knows that
when the polar elevation is great, the eaftern and weltern obfervations are not to be de-
pended on.
The eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth, the winds continually varied ; they were
fometimes N.E., then S, W., at times light, at others violent. In thefe latitudes there
1S
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