Journal of the Third Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West PassageParry, William Edward, Sir
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Journal of the Third Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage
Parry, William Edward, Sir
Arctic regions -- Discovery and exploration -- British; Fury (Ship); Hecla (Ship); Northwest Passage
The indications of the barometer previous to and during this gale deserve
to be noticed, because it is only about Cape Farewell that, in coming
from the northward down Davis’s Strait, this instrument begins to speak a
language which has ever been intelligible to us as a weather-glass. As
it is also certain that a “stormy spirit” resides in the neighbourhood of
this headland, no less than in that of more famed ones to the south, it
may become a matter of no small practical utility for ships passing it,
especially in the autumn, to attend to the oscillations of the mercurial
column. It is with this impression alone that I have detailed the
otherwise uninteresting circumstances of the inclement weather we now
experienced here; and which was accompanied by the following indications
of the barometer. On the 24th, notwithstanding the change of wind from
north to east, the mercury rose from 29.51 on that morning, to 29.72 at
three A.M. the following day, but fell to 29.39 by nine P.M., with the
strong but not violent breeze then blowing. After this it continued to
descend very gradually, and had reached 28.84, which was its minimum, at
three P.M. on the 26th, after which it continued to blow tremendously
hard for eleven or twelve hours, the mercury uniformly though slowly
ascending to 28.95 during that interval, and afterwards to 29.73 as the
weather became moderate and fine in the course of the three following
days.
After this gale the atmosphere seemed to be quite cleared, and we enjoyed
a week of such remarkably fine weather as seldom occurs at this season of
the year. We had then a succession of strong southerly winds, but were
enabled to continue our progress to the eastward, so as to make Mould
Head, towards the north-west end of the Orkney Islands, at daylight on
the 10th of October; and the wind becoming more westerly we rounded North
Ronaldsha Island at noon, and then shaped a course for Buchaness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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