A.D. 



HON. CAPTAIN PHIPPS. 307 



steered to the northward, along the land, until the 

 afternoon of the 5th, when, the weather berno- 1773, 

 very foggy, the attention of our voyagers was 

 arrested by a noise resembling the surf upon a 

 beach, which increased as they proceeded, until 

 they at length discovered an extensive body of 

 ice, consisting of large masses driven closely 

 together, heaving and subsiding with the waves as 

 they rolled in from the southward, and so close 

 to the ships that there was hardly room for them 

 to be put about. 



When the weather cleared up the main ice 

 was seen at no great distance from the ships, 

 bearing from W.N.W. to E.N.E., and presenting 

 a prospect as cheerless to our navigators as could 

 well be imagined, as it precluded the possibi- 

 lity of advancing to the northward much beyond 

 the situation of the ships at that time, and left 

 the only hope of being able to make any progress 

 dependent upon a narrow channel leading to the 

 eastward, between the ice and the northwestern 

 point of Spitsbergen. Captain Phipps lost no 

 time in availing himself of even this small open- 

 ing, and being favoured with^ clear weather and 

 smooth water, he sailed close along the edge of 

 the ice. He however very soon came to the end 

 of the opening, and finding no chance of being able 

 to proceed further, turned about to retrace his 



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