Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Pages ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
KERGUELEN’S VOYAGE TO THE NORTH. 759
this bay which abounds in falmon. At the eaftern point of the gulph there is a reef,
or chain of rocks, which proceeds farther out than is noticed in the Dutch maps.
Eaftward of this reef four iflands are diftinguifhed pretty high, and very lofty, the
fourth is at the entrance of Klipbaye, where there is anchorage clofe to fhore, either on
the ftarboard or larboard quarter; but heed muft be taken of a large bank in the
middle of the bay, and which does not allow of lufing. Eaftward of the four iflands
a large flat ifland is feen, called Ulakiland, at the foot of which weftward there is an
anchorage. This ifland is in the S. one quarter S. E. corrected, from the ifle of Grims,
where the anchorage is in the fouthern part. There is fhelter from the north, but a
veffel there muft be prepared to fail upon its blowing S. E. or S. W. The tides run
very {ftrong, the direction of them E. and W. Good anchorage is found at the point
of Roodchoke, in ten fathoms, with fandy bottom, fouth of a round rock, which is fafe
and very diftingfhable ; fheltered from S. E. winds. ‘There is befides good anchor-
age at Oudeman, fafe from all winds, to S., but when it veers to the N. the fhip mutt
change her birth. This is the fummary of what I learned from experience in my own
veffel, and from feveral fifhermen with whom I frequently converfed on this fubject.
Lower down I fhall {peak of the roads and ports of the eaft fide. I do not conceive that
any one will be furprifed in reading this journal at noticing my entrance, whether by
night or day into all the ports of Iceland. No one is ignorant that under the poles
there is fix months of day, and the fame length of night ; that the nearer the poles are
approached, the longer the days and the nights, according to the feafon of the year.
Every one knows alfo, that the fun gives its light by refraction when below the horizon ;
and that this is called twilight; that that which precedes the rifing is called the dawn,
or morning twilight, and that that follows its fetting is named the twilight, or evening
twilight ; moreover, that the farther the obferver proceeds from the equator, the longer
the twilight. Thus it may readily be conceived, that in Iceland, which extends north-
ward as far as to the polar circle, by favour of the twilight a continual day reigns from
May to September, fo as to enable a perfon to read and write at midnight, and that the
fun does not fet below the horizon for eight days before and eight days after the fum-
mer folftice: that is to fay, from the twelfth of June to the firft of July.
The twenty-fourth the wind varied, making the entire circle of the compafs ; fome-.
times gentle and at others violent, but continually a heavy fea. I fteered S. one quarter
S. W.; and the twenty-fifth at noon was in latitude 60° 58’, and longitude W. of
Paris 19° 30’. By the map I perceived I was 3° E. of Ferro, 110 leagues diftant, ac~
cording to the chart of Mr. Bellin ; and acording to the Dutch charts, from the fame
ftation, Ferro bore E. N. E. 42 leagues diftant, making a difference of 68 leagues, or
nearly 7° in that latitude. The rock at S. of thefe iflands, according to Mr. Bellin, is.
in latitude 61° 17’: according to the Dutch 61° 44’ = that is to fay, 27° more N. hefe-
differences as well in latitude as longitude furprifed me, and made me befitate as to the
courfe to fteer. I refolved, at length, to make the fouthern point of the ifles of Ferro,
according to the latitude defcribed by Mr. Bellin. I fteered accordingly and obferved
the variation of the needle in the evening to be the fame as the day before, 23° 30’.
The twenty-fixth at noon, having made 43 leagues of way undera frefh breeze
from the ES. E., I obferved the latitude to be the fame as the day before, 60° 58’,
and the longitude 14° 58’. As I had no difference of latitude after having fteered:
E. S. E. for twenty-four hours with great circumfpection, I conjectured that the diffe-
xence arofe from two points of wind, or 22° 30’.
The twenty-feventh, at three o’clock in the morning, having run E. one quarter S. E.
with aN. and N.N. W. wind from the twenty-fixth at noon, the wind frefh with a high
fea,
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
