288 DISCOVERIES OF 1746. 



name was Drage, a pedantic, disputatious, dog- 

 matical performance. The following abstract is 

 taken from the journal of Mr. Ellis.* 



The two ships dropped down to Gravesend on 

 the 20th May, 1746. They fell in with ice on the 

 27th June, in latitude 58"* 30', to the eastward of 

 Cape Farewell, and shortly after with abundance 

 of drift-wood, the origin of which causes some 

 vague and certainly erroneous speculations in Mr. 

 Ellis's mind, for he imagines it to come from the 

 west coast of Greenland, where he ought to have 

 known that no wood is produced. He also specu- 

 lates on the origin of those mountains of ice 

 which float down Davis's Strait, and inclines to 

 the opinion of Hans Egede, which is unques- 

 tionably the right one, of their original formation 

 being on the land. 



The two ships passed the Resolution and the 

 Savage Islands, at the latter of which they had 

 communication with the Esquimaux, whose per- 

 sons, clothing, canoes, and implements are de- 

 scribed with great accuracy. Mr. Ellis observes, 

 that the approach to large islands or fields of ice 

 is always announced by the change in the tem- 

 perature from warm to cold, and generally by low 

 fogs suspended over it. He also observes, that 

 the refraction is so great, that it is not uncommon 



* A Vovage to Iliulsons Bay, by Henry Ellis. 



