Star.
London, England, 1818-10-16 00:00:00

NORTHERN EXPEDITION.

We hare been favoured with the following curi-
os and interesting letter to the Honourable Captain
Noon, R. N. from on board the Isabella, one of
tsgiii:ps at present employed in the Northein Ex.
rtiiva:
x
• ifie Usjesty's Shiitsabella, off Sugar Loaf Bay, Davis's
Str.its, July 12, 1818. lat. 74. 2. N. long. 58. W.

)11; DEAR SI ft—l take the opportunity of a
vhship to let you know what we arc about in this
Tezicn ; a few extracts from Cite log will give
:cri,,:ea of our proc:::edings. On the 3d May left
and had a tolerably fair passage across the
',..'.antic; on the were in Icagitude of Cape
fres-ell ;2 deg. south of it found our variation in-
as we went west, temperature of air and
slier nearly the same as at Shetland, eiermometer
c or 43 deg. On the 26th saw the first ice berg,
ic.ss. 58. long. 50. 54.: we now had snow and
thermometer at freezing, a good deal of loose
ke all round. June 2, in lat. 65. long. 56. we're close
sith the main west ice, which we supposed exten-
4ed the whole way to the American mast; on the
th made the Greenland coast, in ht. 65. 42. but did
pt stand close in ; the land here appeared something
tie :he north coast of Spain, and about tile same
1,44 t, the mountains very precipitous, and termi-
sitiag in ragged peaks. .We continued our course
w the northward, as the winds and ice permitted,
opog on the edge of the main west ice, which we
lid trending to -N. E. On the Bth, in lat. 68.20.
.4. 55.50. a few leagues off the Greenland coast,
,•tre so hemmed in with ice on all sides that we
ould not run through ; a fine S. W. gale was
wing, and were obliged to tack about where we
ald find room. On the 9th we made last to an
e berg aground is S 8 fathoms, about a mile off
re. The mode of anchoring to ice is very easy,
boat goes a-head with the anchors, and fixes them
the ship approaches; when ready, the ship
cinis in and makes fast, bow to the ice, a low berg
lat the bowsprit lays over is preferred, and aground
is flit ttit! had. On the 10th were obliged to get un-
a small change of wind setting a large body
tike I:per. us ; we continued plying where we could
Worn water , and fell in with a whaler, the first
It had seen, who informed us that none of the whale
its had been able to get past 70 deg.; that the ice
;the northward was still fast. On the 14th called
:de Whale Islands, where there is a Danish &e-
-l!. The Danish Resident came on board ; from
awe could get little information, except that the
ding winter had been very severe. On the 16th
errached 70.39. N. no clear water to be seen north-
sz?,!nade fast to an ice berg about a mile off the
lit cad of Waygat or Hare Island. We found
of the whale fishers waiting for an opening
north, the fishery to the southward having
11l it season. Waygat is eight or nine miles
110200 or 1300 feet high, uninhabited, some of
Oaks basaltic. Coal is found near the surface

atieN. E. part of the island. Some grouse were
ix the cock perfectly white, the hen not unlike that
iScetland. I saw one hare pure white. On the
lithe ice opened a little to the northward, when
witgar, to warp and tow the ship through the
sink, he winds light and variable, and frequent
can. On the 26th were only 20 miles from Way-
,sbere we got into a piece of clear water that
crnedn, to the land ice on the north side of Jacob's
lac. ;U. 2f. We found ourselves in M. 17. W.
linters, which agreed well with chronometers.
eswung the ship, and took azimuths on board at
, four points. Corresponding azimuths were
cal at the same time on the ice. The observations
• not taken in so correct a manner as might be
form a just estimate of the deviation of the •
Zs by ship's attraction. The idea here at pre-
is. that the compasses are not attracted in a line
the ship, but obliquely. From my own °bier-
tion 1 find that the bearings of distant objects with
ship's head north and south correspond, which
aid not be the case if the attraction of the ship was
t fort and aft, but athwart. The azimuths taken
ch the ship's head north or south generally agree.
supposed likewise that the error arising from the
attraction has increased with the variation and
is there were no observations made before
tg Etti,,:and on the ship's attraction, we must
patience until the variation is again decreased.
slthiLk that the error has been constant the whole
or. The ship's head at west gives, according to
loan observation, an increase of variation 16 deg.;
cat a decrease of 16 deg. On the 27th we cast
firom the ice with the prospect of an opening, and
tied about in a narrow pool till the 2d July, when
fresh breeze opened a passage fur us. On the
?re were in ;1.30.--on the 4th 72. 30. On the
A a lat. 74. were again obstructed by ice, the
bep and Enos much heavier by far than those we
'hithtrto seen.
'We are now in the same place that Baffin, 200
ri'ot anchored : we find the Three Islands just
at,tabes them ; he makes them in 74. 4. we
?thee 74. lf. Baffin gives an honest account
mem% U'e stretched to the westward on the 9th
r•~ loth, but found the sea all fast. We are now
7417 etpoctation of the wind shifting to the N.E.
c')Auity. strong, which is the only thing that
us glrid. It is strange that, at the same time
-4 Tear, almost to a day, Baffin should have
t.stopped by ice in the same place; he likewise
.west without finding clear sea—his account
''am to 715. N. but he does not say he was at
:19 of the Bay, or saw land there. Our voyage
.f•ds been very pleasant—Since the middle of
are have had very fine weather, the therm°-
in sun 76.—sometimes in the shade it is at a
anus 33. or 34. sometimes below the freezing
For five or six weeks we have only had oc-
to tAke in the first reef once. The water is
'th as a mill-pond all weathers. We have
'ern rain—our changes of weather are from
ti.ick fogs, and sometimes light falls of
b:dr.v..irnes the sun shines unclouded the
tweet: -four hours. We have only seen two
, and 'nave only heard of one being killed
e have been here—they are all north of us.
cre as scarce_ one has been seen. A great
4. of the gull tribe have been shot, and we
aei procure a mess of eider ducks ; seals are
cbundant, but we dun't trouble them. The
i:irreak.d, where we saw it, to the south-

ward of 701 H, is higher than to the nsrthward of that
latitude. ert the coast consists of many high bold I
bluff-like head lands, which, closer tot far:: (Band to
be islands. The main land is one cofitintied ridge
of smooth snow, which appears like 'a cloud. I sup-
pose the ground has not been uncovered since the
flood. The islands in general are dear of snow.—
There are no inhabitants to thi north of 74.30. on
this coast. We had some of the natives on board
from 68. SO. 70,i. and 72b—they are all the same
people, the women dressed in the same mariner as
the men, only their hair tied on the crown of their
head, and a small sort of peak on the fore and after
part of their jackets. We have been sq anxious to
get on the more interesting part of our voyage, that
little attention has been paid to the natives here. The
most astonishing thing to be seen here is the ice-
bergs—their size and number surpasses fancy. From
the 65th deg. to this, the sea is literally covered with
bergs, and we see no end to them : where they are
generated is yet unknown to us; it is not in 74. or
to the southward on this coast. That they are form-
ed on the land is certain, from the many stones of
great size which arc seen ; some of them are covered
with sand and dirt, others have regular strata of sand
and stones running through them horizontally. They
are of all forms—generally they have a high cleft on
one side, and shelve down to the water on the other ;
some exceed '2OO feet perpendicular all round.—
Loose or stream ice consists of pieces about the size
of an acre and under, about a foot above the sur-
face ; when it is blown together by strong winds, one
piece is edged up on the top of another, it is then
' called packed ice, or a pack. Flaws are large pieces
of field ice. The ice generally drifts with the wind,,
though a current mutt set southward, or how would
the bergs find their way south. NVe have not been
able to detect any current. The flood tide sets here
from southward. At Waygat we had a rise and fall
of seven feet at spring tides. Where the ice-bergs
drift into shallow water (that is to say 150 fathoms
or under), they ground, and obstruct the passage of,
the smaller ice, and form barriers which it is difficult
to pass. In 68. there is a reef, and '7O. another, in
74. another, generally found full of ice by the fishers;
we have found it the same. In standing a few
leagues from land we find 85 fathoms here, closer
on 150, 90, and so on. The water runs in small
streams from the bergs, so we have no difficulty in
getting it. lam now more sanguine of getting a
long way north and west than 1 was at the first of
the voyage. lam of opinion that the ice will clear
away, and that very soon. The small ice has been
for-some time consuming fast, and will be all dis-
solved by the end of this month, even without wind
to break it.

" JULY 18.—Yesterday an opening in the ice enae,
bled us to get to 71. 43. when we were again stop-
ped—the ice here much heavier, and in fields.. We
are at present fast to a field, in thick fog, which
freezes as it falls, and covers every thing with ice.
When at the Three Island.we made some further
observations on the bearings of distant objects by
compass, and found a change of bearings of three
points at east and west. The compasses for some
time have traversed very sluggishly ; this, we sup-
pose, is ossing to the increase of dip. I think it not
at all improbable, that, as the terrestrial magnetism.
begins to act more inclined to the compass needle, it
will act with less force—the iron of the ship still act-
ing at the same angle, draws the needle towards the
centre of the ship, which causes this great deviation
of the compass; and should we reach the place
where the dip is 90, I think the-compass will stand
always north and south by the magnetism of tlvz.
ship. We did not speak the Leith ; this must
therefore take its chance of any craft. The &scrip-
' don of Greenland, given in Dr. Brewster's Encyclo-
Tedia, is so correct, that no one need add any thing
more on that subject, until the face of the country'
is again changed I had picked up some stones
from the different parts which we touched fur Dr.
Brewster, but having since read the article Greenlaad
in his book, I find that he knows more than a ship
load could tell him.* We have been unfortunate in
killing animals, so that I have got no chrystalline
lenses for him. I bespoke some eyes of whales from
the fishers, but the chance of their killing fish, or of
our falling in with them again, is doubtful.—lf we
fall in with a Leith ship, I will send the stones.

" Jur.lt 22.—Yesterday we got an opening, which
brought us to the 75th deg. The whales begin to
make their appearance, several having been killed
within these eight days. The main land appears one
continued smooth ridge of snow, only here and there
the black peak of a mountain appearing ; some large
islands on the coast less covered with snow; the land
ice extends three or four leagues off, so there is no
prospect of approaching the coast hereabouts. We
sound occasionally in from 200 to 100 fathoms soft
mud and small stones. Three days we were beset in
the ice 9 • could not observe any current, by the lead
lying at the bottom, though the ice on the surface
was an motion.

JULY 250--Lat. 75.21. long. 60.30. Got here
this morning, and now see more clear water than we
have seen tor, some time past. We must now be
crossing the Magnetic Pole fast, as the variation in-
creases so much. It is puzzling to find out exactly
how the ship is steering by the compass; what with
the great variation and error, arising from the ship's
attraction and the sluggish traversing of the com-
passes, we must consider some time before a course
or wind can be properly named. We are now the
northernmost ship, and have made fast to the ice, on
purpose to send away a few letters. The fish are
turning so very plenty, that all the ships are em-
ployed, and probably will proceed no further north
this season. This afternoon we go: ja:nmed between
two Haws, and seeing a ship taking. fish at a short
distance from us, Captain Ross scuds all his dis-
patches with her, in case of not fallir.g in with any
other, or ice opening and separating us. Ycu will
hear from me by every opportunity.
a I am, &c. "J. R."
a P. 6. While writing these last lines, the ice has
closed all round us, and fast to the northward. You
may guess bow fickle it is. We are now about three
miles off a small rocky island, in '270 fathom-. mud ;
the island four or five leagues from the main land,
and ice connecting it. The temperature of the water
to-day is 96 deg. higher than it has been for some
weeks. We see land bearing N.W. by W. true.

• The article " Greenland" was written by Sir Charks Cie-
secke, who spent seven years its that ccuntry.

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