ich was the most we had. With the northerly
wind the air was raw, sharp, and cold, and we had fogs, sunshine,
showers of snow and sleet, by turns. At ten in the morning of the
26th, we fell in with the ice. At noon, it extended from N.W. to E.
by N., and appeared to be thick and compact. At this time, we were, by
observation, in the latitude 69 deg. 36', and in the longitude of 184 deg.; so
that it now appeared we had no better prospect of getting to the north
here, than nearer the shore.

I continued to stand to the westward, till five in the afternoon, when
we were in a manner embayed by the ice, which appeared high, and very
close in the N.W. and N.E. quarters, with a great deal of loose ice
about the edge of the main field. At this time we had baffling light
winds, but it soon fixed at S., and increased to a fresh gale,
with showers of rain. We got the tack aboard, and stretched to the
eastward, this being the only direction in which the sea was clear of
ice.

At four in the morning of the 27th, we tacked and stood to the W.,
and, at seven in the evening, we were close in with the edge of the
ice, which lay E.N.E., and W.S.W., as far each way as the eye could
reach. Having but little wind, I went with the boats to examine the
state of the ice. I found it consisting of loose pieces, of various
extent, and so close together, that I could hardly enter the outer
edge with a boat; and it was as impossible for the ships to enter it,
as if it had been so many rocks. I took particular notice, that it was
all pure transparent ice, except the upper surface, which was a little
porous. It appeared to be entirely composed of frozen snow, and to
have been all formed at sea. For setting aside the improbability, or
rather impossibility, of such huge masses floating out of rivers, in
which there is hardly water for a boat, none of the productions of
the land were found incorporated, or fixed in it, which must have
unavoidably been the case, had it been formed in rivers, either great
or small. The pieces of ice that formed the outer edge of the field,
were from forty or fifty yards in extent, to four or five; and I
judged, that the larger pieces reached thirty feet, or more, under
the surface of the water. It also appeared to me very improbable, that
this ice could have been the production of the preceding winter alone.
I should suppose it rather to have been the production of a great many
winters. Nor was it less improbable, accor