290 ACCOUNT or the arctic regions. 



passed through a patch of drift-ice into a consider- 

 able opening, bounded by a field on the west, drift- 

 ice on the east, and floes and heavy drift-ice on the 

 north and south. Here, the motion of the ice was 

 wonderful. Large masses of drift-ice were advan- 

 cing to the southward, with a velocity of two to 

 three miles per hour, leaving eddies in the sea like 

 those produced by a strong tide in shallow water, 

 while other masses of ice, similar in kind and situa- 

 tion, were at rest. We passed between a floe and 

 some drift-ice, which actually closed as fast as the 

 ship sailed. Some insulated pieces of ice astonish- 

 ed us with their motion ; and proceeded vnth a 

 steady velocity and undeviating course across the 

 middle of the opening. The ice on every side but 

 that on the north, being nearly at rest, the lake we 

 navigated was rapidly filled up ; on our approach to 

 it, there was a space of some leagues in circumfe- 

 rence free from ice ; but in a few hours, the largest 

 space to be seen was not fifty yards in diameter. 

 With difficulty we made our escape to the eastward ; 

 but still remaining by the edge of the packed ice, 

 we could observe the effect produced. Drift-ice 

 continued pouring down from the north against the 

 side of the field ; so that in the course of twelve 

 hours, the intervening ice formed a body of seven or 

 eight miles in width. 



5. When speaking of the currents of the Spitz- 

 bergen Sea, I remarked, that the polar-ice, in this 



