t}12 ACCOUNT OF THE AllCTIC REGIONS. 



during the day ; the interval between the sun com- 

 ing to the meridian, below the Pole, on the 18th, 

 and to the same meridian on the 19th, being near- 

 ly twenty-five hours. When we reached the lon- 

 gitude of about 8° W., in latitude 79° 30', no whales 

 having been seen all the way, we tacked. Our ad- 

 vance to the west, in this parallel, was unexampled ; 

 and yet an expanse of sea lay before us, of which, 

 from the appearance of the sky, we could with con- 

 fidence affirm, that neither ice, in any considerable 

 body, was within thirty miles, nor land within sixty 

 miles of us, in a westerly direction. 



On stretching to the northward, from this, we 

 met with a compact body of ice, in latitude 80° 10', 

 along the edge of which we sailed on an E. or E.NE. 

 course (true), a distance of nearly three hundred 

 miles, examining every sinuosity, and keeping a vi- 

 gilant watch the whole way, without seeing any 

 whales, excepting a dead one. On the 23d, our 

 latitude, by a careful observation, at mid-night, was 

 81° 12' 4)2" ; and, on the morning of the 24th, we 

 considered ourselves nearly a degree to the north- 

 ward of Captain Phipps's farthest advance, our lati- 

 tude being estimated at 81" 30', and longitude 19° E. 

 Here a similar expanse of sea presented itself, as on 

 our western reacli. The margin of the ice continued 

 to trend to the E. N. E., (true), as far as it was vi- 

 sible ; and, from the appearance of the atmosphere, 

 it was clear that the sea was not incommoded by 



