306 HON. CAPTAIN PHIPPS. 



a.d. wide discrepancy in his observations on the varia- 

 tion made at sea. In the seqnel of the voyage, 

 however, we find this enlightened navigator 

 glancing at a probable cause of the disturbance, 

 as did also Captain Cook, about the same period, 

 in the Pacific ; but it is well known that it was 

 left to the penetration of the indefatigable 

 Flinders, satisfactorily to explain the pheno- 

 menon. 



On the 3rd July, the expedition arrived off an 

 island on the western side of Spitzbergen, which 

 had received the name of Prince Charles', and 

 Captain Phipps determined the height of one 

 of its mountains to be 4509 feet. As this was by 

 no means one of the highest hills, some idea 

 of the scale and grandeur of the coast may be 

 formed from its altitude. He here fell in with 

 a whale ship, the master of which informed him 

 that the ice was only sixteen leagues to the west- 

 ward, and that three ships had already been 

 lost in it. 



The following day he anchored in Hamburgh 

 Cove, in lat. 79° 30' N., a small place, situated 

 about three miles to the southward of Magdalena 

 Bay, where he replenished the water of the ship, 

 and would have made some astronomical observa- 

 tions had he not been obliged by wind and fog to 

 put to sea almost immediately. The ships again 



