APPROXIMATIONS TOWARDS THE POLES. 307 



ice, ill the latitude of 80° or 81* ; and that although 

 some instances may have occurred in which vessels 

 have proceeded a little farther, yet few of these in- 

 stances can be authenticated. 



One case, and only one, I can myself establish. 

 While I served in the capacity of chief mate, in 

 the Resolution of Whitby, commanded by my Fa- 

 ther, (whose extraordinary perseverance is well 

 known to all persons in the Greenland trade,) we 

 were enabled, by astonishing efforts, and with expo- 

 sure to imminent hazard, to penetrate as far as 

 latitude 81" 30'. This being, I imagine, one of 

 the most remarkable approximations towards the 

 Pole yet realized, it may not be uninteresting to 

 give an abstract of a part of my journal of this 

 voyage. 



On the 23d of March 1806, we sailed from 

 Whitby, and, on the 12th of April, saw the first 

 ice, near the Island of Jan INIayen, which was then 

 in sight. The next day we penetrated the loose 

 ice in search of seals, until we reached the edge of 

 a solid pack ; but seeing nothing to induce our stay, 

 we made the best of our way to the eastward for 

 the whale-fishery. 



Until the 20th, the winds were mostly unfavour- 

 able ; our progress was in consequence only eighty 

 leagues on an easterly course. We then steered to 

 the north-eastward, and soon fell in with ice, which, 

 however, did not put us out of our course until the 



