midnight
The ice , by the warm weather , the currents , and the northerly winds , being driven out of Lancaster Sound and the head of Baffin 's Bay to the southward , leaves this part , for most of the summer , free from impediments . In five days after leaving the eastern land , having passed the north of Lancaster Sound , we came off the famous fishing-station of Pond 's Bay . The whole coast , in most places , was lined with a sheet of ice some ten or fifteen miles wide , to the edge of which , in perfectly smooth water , our ship , with many others at various distances , was made fast . Fancy a day , warm to our feelings as one at the same time of year in England , and an atmosphere of a brilliancy rarely or never seen at home , not a breath of air stirring the glassy surface of the shining ocean ; while on the land side lofty mountains stretched away on either side , with the opening of the bay in the centre , the rocks of numberless tints , from the many-coloured lichens growing on them , rising as it were out of a bed of snow still filling the valleys even in midsummer ; while mid-way , along the dark frowning crags which formed the coast , hung a wavy line of semi-transparent mist , now tinged with a crimson hue , from the almost horizontal rays of the sun , verging towards midnight . These objects also , it must be understood , appeared so close at hand , that I could scarcely persuade myself that an easy run across the level ice would not carry me up to them ; and yet all the while they were upwards of a dozen miles off . Most of the watch were `` on the bran , '' that is , were in the boats stationed along the edge of the ice , on the look-out for whales . A few hands only , besides myself , were on deck , taking our fisherman 's walk , with our fingers in our pockets , and the watch below were sound asleep in their berths , when Captain Rendall , as was his custom , went aloft before turning in , to take a look-out for fish from his crow 's - nest .