326 DISCOVERIES OF \111 * 



WALTER YOUNG, 1777- 



The Lion aimed brig being again fitted out, 

 under her new Commander, Lieutenant Walter 

 Young, sailed from the Nore on the 23d March, 

 1777, and made Cape Farewell on the Sd June; 

 and for several days had stormy weather, with 

 much snow and hail, the ship working all the 

 while among fields of packed ice, till, on the 18th 

 May, she stood into the harbour of Lichtenfels. 

 On the 24th she again weighed, and made sail to 

 the northward, among much ice, and the weather 

 so bad, that on the 2d June the ship's sails, ropes 

 and rigging were one mass of ice. On the 5th, 

 the sea rose very high, and made a fair breach 

 over the main deck of the Lion, which froze 

 instantly, and the decks became covered with a 

 solid body of ice, and the rigging hung with 

 icicles : at this time the Island of Disco was in 

 sight. Here the ice seemed to divide into two 

 immense fields, leaving an open channel in the 

 middle, of eight or ten miles in width, down which 

 channel were seen floating a number of ice-islands 

 or bergs. 



On the 28th June, in latitude 72"" 42', the 

 Woman s Islands were in sight, and to the north- 

 ward, the eastern ice appeared to approach the 

 western, till the channel became so narrow that 

 Lieutenant Young thought it prudent to tack and 

 stand away to the southward. No soundings with 

 100 fathoms of line. The floating islands of ice 



