HON. CAPTAIN PHIPPS. 305 



Phipps describes as being in appearance neither 

 habitable nor accessible ; it being* formed of high 

 barren black rocks, without the least marks of 

 vegetation, in many places bare and pointed, and 

 in others covered with snow ; being so high that 

 its summits towered above the clouds, whilst 

 the valleys were filled with snow or ice. This 

 apjDearance in the middle of summer, he adds, 

 might have suggested the idea of perpetual 

 winter, had not the mildness of the weather, and 

 the brightness of the sunshine, added to the 

 constant daylight which they now enjoyed, given 

 a congenial and cheerful sensation, which was in 

 opposition to that produced by the black and 

 dreary appearance of the coast. 



Captain Phipps now continued his route to the 

 northward, along the western side of Spitsbergen, 

 making his remarks upon the land, and pursuing 

 his observations at sea, in which, we must do him 

 the justice to observe, that, throughout the 

 voyage he was particularly attentive. On the 

 29th he had arrived at a high magnetical lati- 

 tude, the dip being 80^°, and where, the directive 

 power of the needle being greatly diminished, 

 the local attraction of his vessel was sensibly felt. 

 At that period, however, the nature of this dis- 

 turbing force had not been discovered ; and he 

 confesses himself at a loss to account for the 



x 



A.D. 



1773. 



