een the latitude of 68 deg. and 68 deg. 20',
that were not seen the last year. We were now obstructed by ice 3 deg. lower,
and our endeavours to push farther to the northward were principally
confined to the mid-space between the two coasts. We penetrated near 3 deg.
farther on the American side than on the Asiatic, meeting with the ice both
years sooner, and in greater quantities on the latter coast. As we advanced
N., we still found the ice more compact and solid; yet, as in our different
traverses from side to side, we passed over spaces which had, before been
covered with it, we conjectured that most of what we saw was moveable. Its
height, on a medium, we took to be from eight to ten feet, and that of the
highest to have been sixteen or eighteen. We again tried the currents
twice, and found them unequal, but never to exceed one mile an hour. By
comparing the reckoning with the observations, we also found the current to
set different ways, yet more from the S.W. than any other quarter; but
whatever their direction might be, their effect was so trifling, that no
conclusions respecting the existence of any passage to the northward could
be drawn from them. We found the month of July to be infinitely colder than
that of August. The thermometer in July was once at 28 deg., and very commonly
at 30 deg.; whereas the last year, in August, it was very rare to have it so
low as the freezing point. In both seasons we had some high winds, all of
which came from the S.W. We were subject to fogs whenever the wind was
moderate, from whatever quarter, but they attended southerly winds more
constantly than contrary ones.[33]

The straits between the two continents, at their nearest approach in
latitude 66 deg., were ascertained to be thirteen leagues, beyond which they
diverge to N.E. by E. and W.N.W.; and in latitude 69 deg., they become 14 deg. of
longitude, or about one hundred leagues asunder. A great similarity is
observable in the appearance of the two countries, to the northward of the
straits. Both are destitute of wood. The shores are low, with mountains
rising to a great height farther up the country. The depth of water in the
mid-way between them was twenty-nine and thirty fathoms, decreasing
gradually as we approached either continent, with the difference of being
somewhat shoaler on the American than on the Asiatic coast, at the same
distance from land. The bottom in the middle was a soft slimy mud, and on
drawing near t