150 ACCOUNT OF THE ARCTIC llEGIONS. 



racy and minuteness, he deems rather extraordi- 

 nary, and suggests the possibility tliat it had not 

 long existed, but n)ight have been thrown up, by 

 the currents from each side of Spitzbergen meet- 

 ing here. 



This island is of a roundish form, about two 

 miles in diameter, and has a shallow lake of water 

 in the middle. This lake was frozen over, except 

 thirty or forty yards round the edge, near the end 

 of July. The whole island is covered with gravel 

 and small stones, without the least vegetation of 

 any kind. It is but a few feet above the level of 

 the sea. The only piece of drift-wood found on it 

 by Captain Phipps, which was about three fathoms 

 long, and as thick as a ship's mizen mast, had been 

 thrown over the sea-bank, and lay on the declivity 

 near the lake. It was low water at 11 p. m. of 

 g5th of July (1773,) when the boat landed ; and 

 the tide appeared to flow eight or nine feet. The 

 velocity of the tide, which set N. W. and S. E., was 

 about a mile an hour *. 



Loxv Island^ ly^^g ^' ^- E- ^^'^^^ Moffen Island, 

 in latitude 80° 15', and longitude 17° 35' E., was vi- 

 sited on the 29th of July 1773, by Dr Irving, who 

 accompanied Captain Phipps on his expedition to- 

 wards the North Pole, 



The island is about seven miles in length, very 

 flat, and covered chiefly with stones from eighteen 

 to thirty inches in diameter, many of them hexa- 



* Phipps' Voyage^ p. 52. 



