214 ACCOUNT OF THE AECTIC REGIONS. 



meridian of 8° W., and remained during a thick 

 fog until the 9th, generally moored to ice, or drift- 

 ing to the northward, with the wind constantly from 

 the south-westward/ As the ice was light, and had 

 considerable drift in the water, we expected we must 

 have set at least eighty or ninety miles to the north- 

 ward ; whereas, from our first observation of the 

 sun, we found we had set nearly thirty miles to the 

 southward. Hence, allowing for the drift of the 

 ship by the wind, the current appeared to have set 

 110 or 120 miles to the southward in nine days, be- 

 ing twelve or thirteen miles per day, southing, or 

 half a mile per hour, besides the distance it might 

 have set to the westward. 



In the year 1803, the Henrietta of Whitby, 

 while prosecuting the whale-fishery, was, by a south- 

 erly storm, entangled among the ice in latitude 80° 

 north, longitude 6° east ; and afterwards accompa- 

 nied it in its drift, first to the westward, and then 

 to the south-westward or southward, at the daily 

 rate of from five to fifteen miles. They saw bears 

 in uncommon numbers ; and at one time the coast 

 of Greenland, they believed, was in sight. The ice 

 pressed di-eadfully around them, and accumulated 

 in amazing heaps ; but the ship always escaped the 

 heaviest crushes, and was wonderfully preserved. 

 After a state of complete inertion during seven 

 weeks, the ice began to slack ; when, with vigilant 

 and laborious measures, they were enabled to make 



