338 DISCOVERIES OF 1786 and 



boats from Greenland to follow the east coast of 

 Statenlioek or Cape Farewell to the north; but 

 they had not been able to proceed farther than 

 sixty miles on account of various obstacles.* 



Lieutenant Egede, with his little vessel, set sail 

 from the port of Havnefiord in Iceland on the 8th 

 of August, 1786; met for many days enormous 

 masses of floating ice, and discovered land on the 

 l6th August, in latitude 65° 24' 17", longitude 

 33° 10', at the distance of sixty or severity miles; 

 and approached it within thirty miles ; he observed 

 the current to run to the south-west. No sound- 

 ings were to be had at 100 fathoms. There was 

 a brightness in the horizon, occasioned no doubt 

 by masses of ice. The ice was of great breadth be- 

 tween him and the land, but he could find no open- 

 ing to push through it; he hove the lead in vain — no 

 bottom was to be found. He perceived a narrow 

 space of clear water lying between the ice and the 

 land. The land was very high, with pointed rocky 

 summits, apparently of greater elevation than the 

 mountains of Norway ; and they were covered with 

 snow and ice ; but through the telescope they 

 could discover pointed peaks lower down, which 

 were not covered with snow. On the 20th they 

 again discovered land, when in latitude 64° 58' 53", 

 longitude 34° 34', at the distance of about six 

 and thirty miles ; but all the coast was beset with 

 ice, which it was impossible to penetrate. They 



* Abstracted from Admiral Lowenorn's MS. Journal. 



