The swell had somewhat subsided on the 29th, but the ships remained firmly fixed in the ice as before. In the course of the day we saw land bearing N. 69° W. about thirteen leagues distant, appearing from the masthead like a group of islands, and situated near to the entrance of Cumberland Strait: the soundings were one hundred and thirty-five fathoms; the temperature of the sea at that depth 30°; that of the surface being the same, and of the air 34°. On the 30th the ice began to slacken a little more about the ships; and, after two hours' heaving with a hawser on each bow brought to the capstan and windlass, we succeeded in moving the Hecla about her own length to the eastward, where alone any clear sea was visible. The ice continuing to open still more in the course of the day, we were at length enabled to get both ships into open water, after eight hours' incessant labour. On the 1st and 2d of July, we continued to keep close to the edge of the ice without perceiving any opening in it. Its outer margin consisted of heavy detached masses, much washed by the sea, and formed what is technically called "a pack," this name being given to ice when so closely connected as not to admit the passage of a ship between the masses. Within the margin of the pack, it appeared to consist of heavy and extensive floes, having a bright ice-blink over them; but no clear water could be discovered to the westward. The birds, which had hitherto been seen since our first approach to the ice, were fulmar peterels, little auks, looms, and a few gulls. On the morning of the 3d the wind blew strong from the eastward, with a short, breaking sea, and thick, rainy weather, which made our situation for some hours rather an unpleasant one, the ice being close under our lee. Fortunately, however, we weathered it by stretching back a few miles to the southward. In the afternoon the wind moderated, and we tacked again to the northward, crossing the Arctic circle at four P.M., in the longitude of 57° 27' W. We passed at least fifty icebergs in the course of the day, many of them of large dimensions. Towards midnight, the wind having shifted to the southwest and moderated, another extensive chain of very large icebergs appeared to the northward: as we approached them the wind died away, and the ships' heads were kept to the northward, only by the steerage way given to them by a heavy southerly swell, which, dashing the loose ice with tremendous force against the bergs, sometimes raised a white spray over the latter to the height of more than one hundred feet, and, being accompanied with a loud noise, exactly resembling the roar of distant thunder, presented a scene at once sublime and terrific. We could find no bottom near these icebergs with one hundred and ten fathoms of line.