HON. CAPTAIN PHIPPS. 313 



ice. There was a piece of drift wood upon the A . D . 

 edge of the lake, about eighteen feet long and 

 five feet girth, with a root to it ; and, as there 

 are no trees of this dimension upon either 

 Spitzbergen or Nova Zembla, it is very pro- 

 bable that this one had been brought down 

 some of the great rivers to the eastward, and 

 drifted by the currents to the resting-place which 

 it had found upon Moffen Island. This small 

 barren spot of ground was the resort of nume- 

 rous sea-fowl, wild geese, and ducks, which had 

 made nests all over the island. 



Upon one part of the shore there was a grave, 

 with a Dutch inscription, bearing date 1771. 

 On the western side of the island they found 

 a fine sandy bay, with a shelving even bottom, 

 and good anchorage in five fathoms' water at 

 half a mile distance from the shore. 



Quitting Moffin Island, the ships worked to 

 the north-eastward, in a sea so clear of ice, that 

 the only pieces in sight were those which they 

 had already passed. The next clay they saw 

 land to the eastward ; and on the 27th were 

 in latitude 80° 48' N. by reckoning, and in 

 longitude 14° 59' E. Here they again encoun- 

 tered the main body of ice, which arrested their 

 further progress northward, and the following 

 day were obliged to run several miles to the 



