a.d. THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



1578. 



swimming above water, which wee supposed was that 

 which the Salamander strooke. 



The second day of July early in the morning we had 

 sight of the Queenes Foreland, and bare in with the land 

 all the day, and passing thorow great quantity of yce, by 

 night were entred somewhat within the Streites, per- 

 ceiving no way to passe further in, the whole place being 

 frozen over from the one side to the other, and as it 

 Frobishers were with many walles, mountaines, and bulwarks of yce, 

 Streites choked cno ked up the passage, and denied us entrance. And 

 / * y ce - y et ^ oe j not fhmke- that this passage or Sea hereabouts 

 is frozen over at any time of the yere : albeit it seemed 

 so unto us by the abundance of yce gathered together, 

 which occupied the whole place. But I doe rather 

 suppose these yce to bee bred in the hollow soundes and 

 freshets thereabouts : which by the heate of the sommers 

 Sunne, being loosed, doe emptie themselves with the 

 ebbes into the sea, and so gather in great abundance there 

 together. 



And to speake somewhat here of the ancient opinion of 

 the frozen sea in these parts : I doe thinke it to be 

 rather a bare conjecture of men, then that ever any man 

 hath made experience of any such sea. And that which 

 they speake of Mare glaciale, may be truely thought to 

 be spoken of these parts : for this may well be called 

 indeede the ycie sea, but not the frozen sea, for no sea 

 consisting of salt water can be frozen, as I have more at 

 large herein shewed my opinion in my second voyage, for 

 Saltwatercan- it seemeth impossible for any sea to bee frozen, which 

 not freeze. \\2i\h his course of ebbing and flowing, especially in those 

 places where the tides doe ebbe and flowe above ten 

 fadome. And also all these aforesayd yce, which we 

 sometime met a hundreth mile from lande, being gathered 

 out of the salt Sea, are in taste fresh, and being dissolved, 

 become sweete and holesome water. 

 [III. 78.] And the cause why this yere we have bene more 



combred with yce then at other times before, may be 

 by reason of the Easterly & Southerly winds, which 



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