177^. ROUND THE WORLD. &57 



loose ice which we ran through. At six o'clock we 

 were obliged to haul to the north-east, in order to 

 clear an immense field which lay to the south and 

 south-east. The ice in most part of it lay close 

 packed together ; in other places there appeared 

 partitions in the field, and a clear sea beyond it. 

 However, I did not think it safe to venture through, 

 as the wind would not permit us to return the same 

 way that we must go in. Besides, as it blew strong, 

 and the weather at times was exceedingly foggy, it 

 was the more necessary for us to get clear of this 

 loose ice, which is rather more dangerous than the 

 great islands. It was not such ice as is usually 

 found in bays or rivers, and near shore, but such as 

 breaks off from the islands, and may not improperly 

 be called parings of the large pieces, or the rubbish 

 or fragments which fall off when the great islands 

 break loose from the place where they are formed. 



We had not stood long to the north-east before 

 we found ourselves embayed by the ice, and were 

 obliged to tack and stretch to the south-west, having 

 the field or loose ice to the south, and many huge 

 islands to the north. After standing two hours on 

 this tack, the wind very luckily veering to the west- 

 ward, we tacked, stretched to the north, and soon 

 got clear of all the loose ice, but not before we had 

 received several hard knocks from the larger pieces, 

 which, with all our care, we could not avoid. After 

 clearing one danger we still had another to encounter; 

 the weather remained foggy, and many large islands 

 lay in our way ; so that we had to luff' for one, 

 and bear up for another. One we were very near 

 falling aboard of; and if it had happened, this cir- 

 cumstance would never have been related. These 

 difficulties, together with the improbability of find- 

 ing land farther south, and the impossibility of ex- 

 ploring it on account of the ice, if we should find 

 any, determined me to get more to the north. At 

 the time we last tacked, we were in the longitude of 



VOL. III. s 



