In regard to smoothness of sea, peacefulness of weather, entire absence of ice, and scarcity of bergs, the voyage from Sydney to the Arctic Circle has been most unusual even for this season of the year. With the exception of the few rolls just outside of Sydney Harbour, there has not been enough motion of the ship to spill a glass of water. The noon sights give us 67° 37′ north latitude. The water, like glass, and the cliffs of Disco visible 95 miles away. In 68° we passed through a fleet of twenty-seven bergs, the output of the Disco Bay glaciers. During the afternoon a few walrus and two whales were seen. The day has been one of typical Disco Bay summer weather. _Saturday, Aug. 5th._—A perfect Arctic summer night, clear and brilliant. At two this morning we passed Godhavn, the little place lying under the southward-facing cliffs of Disco, which is the capital of the northern inspectorate of Greenland. Here, nineteen years ago, I got my first taste of Arctic life, and made plans and indulged in dreams some of which have since materialised and others may. Several times since then I have anchored in the harbour, till I know the little settlement as I do the streets of Washington. Though we are now over three degrees beyond the Arctic Circle, I am sitting in my cabin, with window and ports open, in my shirt sleeves, wearing clothing I wore in New York before I left, writing in entire comfort. Later, a light breeze from the westward, keen after its passage over the middle pack, makes the blue waters look like frosted steel, and sharpens the western cliffs of Disco, along which we are steaming, into almost startling clearness. At noon we are off Hare Island and passing through a fleet of large bergs, the output of the Tossuketek glacier, which I visited in 1886, through the Waigatt. We are ten days from Sydney to the Waigatt. _Sunday, Aug. 6th._—An hour or two of fog at midnight, then overcast, with a light following breeze, barely enough to fill the sails at first, then freshens from southwest and brings up a sea which would give the _Roosevelt_ considerable motion were it not for the sails which hold her almost as steady as a rock. Occasionally the top of a wave slaps over the port rail, but not enough to do any harm. The base of Sanderson’s Hope seen and named by John Davis 300 years ago, was visible under the fog in the early morning. Our noon sights gave us 73° 17′ north latitude, and at 6 P. M. we passed the Duck Islands on our starboard beam, near enough to see with the glasses, the old whaler’s lookout on the summit. The sea and fresh breeze continued all the evening, and there is evidently very dirty weather to the south of us. No sign of ice yet.