On the morning of the 30th of April, 1810, the ship Resolution—in which I served in the capacity of chief-mate, or harpooner—was, during thick showers of snow, sailing by the edge of a stream of ice, with the wind from the north-westward. About ten, A.M., the snow abated, and several ships were seen within the distance of three or four miles. As all of these ships were sailing “on a wind,” it was easy to ascertain the direction of the wind where they were, and curious to observe its variableness. Two ships, bearing north-east from us, had the wind at north-east; two, bearing east, had east or east-north-east; two, bearing south-east, had the wind at south-east; while, with us, it blew from the north-west. In each of these situations a fresh breeze prevailed; but in some situations, where there happened to be no ships, there appeared to be no wind at all. The clouds above us, at the time, we’re constantly changing their forms. Showers of snow were seen in various places at a distance. Instances of _local storms_ are not uncommon in temperate climates, but in the arctic regions they are frequent and striking. Their locality is such, that a calm may occur when a storm is expected and actually does prevail at a short distance, so that the indication of the barometer may appear to be erroneous. In such cases, however, the reality of the storm is often proved by the agitation of the sea. Swells from various quarters make their appearance, and frequently prevail at the same time. My father, whose opportunities of observation have been very numerous, relates the following instance of the locality of a storm. When commanding the ship Henrietta, he was on one occasion navigating the Greenland Sea during a tedious gale of wind, accompanied with snowy weather. As the wind began to abate, a ship appeared in sight, under all sails, and presently came up with the Henrietta. The master hailed, and inquired what had happened that my father’s ship was under close-reefed top-sail in such moderate weather. On being told that a storm had just subsided, he declared that he knew nothing of it; he observed, indeed, a swell, and noticed a black cloud a-head of his ship that seemed to advance before him until he was overshadowed with it a little while before he overtook the Henrietta, but he had had fine weather and light winds the whole day!