SOG DISCOVERIES OF 1773, 



ceitain whether it joined to the land of Spitzber- 

 gen, or was so detached as to afford an opportunity 

 of passing to the eastw^ard. But the pilots and 

 officers thought it impracticable to proceed in that 

 direction, and augured that they would probably 

 soon be beset wliere they were, as this was about the 

 spot where most of the old discoverers had been 

 stopped. With great difficulty they worked their 

 way through the more loose parts of the ice tow^ards 

 the nortli-w^est. A heavy swell and thick weather 

 caused them to tack and to stand towards Hak- 

 luyt's Headland. 



On the morning of the 9th. the ice was found 

 to be quite fast to the west, being then in longi- 

 tude 2° 2' E. by their reckoning, which Captain 

 Phipps observes was the farthest to the w^estward of 

 Spitzbergen they ever got on the voyage. In the 

 eveniup' of the same dav the latitude w^as 80® 36', 

 Having run along the edge of the ice from east to 

 west above ten degrees, " I now," says Captain 

 Phipps, " began to conceive that the ice was one 

 compact impenetrable body." He now stood over 

 to the eastw^ard, and on the 1 3th came to anchor in 

 Vogelsang ; a good roadstead, near a remarkable 

 point called Cloven Cliff, which is " a bare rock, so 

 called from the top of it resembling a cloven hoof, 

 which appearance it has always worn, having been 

 named by some of the first Dutch navigators who 

 frequented these seas. This rock, being entirely 

 detached from the other mountains, and joined to 



