308 ACCOUNT OF THE AECTIC UEGIONS. 



following day, wlicn we were obliged to bear more 

 away, on account of close ice, wliich trended to the 

 E., S. E., and afterwards S. S. E. 



At 8 p. M. of the 24th of April, supposing our- 

 selves near land, both from our reckoning and from 

 the vast quantity of birds seen, the ship was laid 

 too, the weather being thick with snow. At 10 

 p. M., the weather cleared, and we discovered Cherie 

 Island ten leagues distant to the north-east, with 

 the appearance of ice around it. This induced our 

 prompt return along the edge of the ice, judging 

 that direction the most prudent, though seventeen 

 out of twenty ships in company continued to pro- 

 ceed to the south-eastward. Whether the masters 

 of these ships did not see the land, or, seeing it, 

 were determined to search for a new passage to the 

 fishing stations on the cast side of Cherie Island, 

 we could not ascertain ; but we considered it more 

 safe to pursue the accustomed track, though ap- 

 parently blocked up with an impervious body of 

 ice. 



Having surveyed the margin of the ice for four 

 days, without discovering any material inlet, we 

 penetrated the borders with a northerly wind, as 

 far as practicable, and then moored to an ice-berg. 



Two days afterwards, the wind veered to the 

 south, with which we forced a little farther to the 

 northward, and, on the 2d of INIay, moored to ano- 

 ther ice-berg. 



