2 5 3 A VOYAGE TO 



>779- account, was 6q° 8', the longitude 187% and the depth of 



July. . * 



v,., v — ; water twenty-eight fathoms. To add to the gloomy appre- 

 henfions which began to force themfelves on us, at half pail 

 four in the afternoon, the weather becoming thick and 

 hazy, we loft fight of the Difcovery ; but, that we might be 

 in a fituation to afford her every affiftance in our power, we 

 kept {landing on clofe by the edge of the ice. Ac fix, the 

 wind happily coming round to the North, gave us fome 

 hopes, that the ice might drift away and releafe her; and in 

 that cafe, as it was uncertain in what condition fhe might 

 come out, we kept firing a gun every half hour, in order to 

 prevent a feparation. Our apprehenfions for her fafety did 

 not ceafe till nine, when we heard her guns in anfwer to 

 ours ; and foon after, being hailed by her, were informed, 

 that upon the change of wind, the ice began to feparate ; 

 and that, fetting all their fails, they forced a paffage through 

 it. We learned farther, that whilfl they were encompaffed 

 by it, they found the fhip drift, with the main body, to the 

 North Eaft, at the rate of half a mile an hour. We were 

 lorry to find, that the Difcovery had rubbed off a great deal 

 of the fheathing from the bows, and was become very leaky, 

 from the ftrokes flic had received when the fell upon the edge 

 of the ice. 



Saturday 24. On the 24th, we had frefh breezes from South Weft, with 

 hazy weather, and kept running to the South Eaft till eleven 

 in the forenoon, when a large body of loofe ice, extending 

 from North North Eaft, round by the Eaft, to South South 

 Eaft, and to which (though the weather was tolerably clear) 

 we could fee no end, again obftrucled our courfc. We there- 

 fore kept working to windward, and at noon, our latitude, 

 by observation, was 68° 53', longitude 188°; the variation of 

 the compafs 22 30' Eaft. At four in the afternoon, it be- 

 4 came 



