NATURAL HISTORY. 



551 



tance from them. On the 24th, 

 Iceland was in sight ; some of the 

 ice was in motion, and two ships 

 seemed to escape. Another was 

 lost on the 7th of September ; 

 and, on the 13th, the Wilhelmina 

 Avas crushed to pieces by the fall 

 of an enormous mass of ice, which 

 was so unexpected, that those of 

 the crew who were in bed, had 

 scarcely time to escape on the ice, 

 half n.-died as they were. 



One ship now alone remained, 

 to which the crews of four, and 

 the surviving part of the crew of 

 a fifth, (that was wrecked on the 

 30th of September), repaired. In 

 the beginning of October, they 

 had drifted to the latitude of 64° ; 

 and, on the 11th, the last ship 

 was overwhelmed by the ice and 

 svink. Thus, between three and 

 four hundred men were driven to 

 the ice, and exposed to the in- 

 clemency of the weather, almost 

 destitute of food and raiment. 



On the 30th of October, the 

 miserable sufferers divided : The 

 greater part betook themselves to 

 the Continent, whilst the rest re- 

 mained on a field of ice, until 

 they drifted near to Staten Hook, 

 and then followed the example of 

 their comrades. About 140 of the 

 men reached the Danish settle- 

 ments on the West Coast of Green- 

 land ; the remainder, consisting 

 of about 200, perished. 



Thus, it appears, that the ship 

 which survived to the latest period, 

 drifted with the ice in a south- 

 westeily direction from the usual 

 fishing-stations, (probably in 78° 

 to 80° of north latitude), to the 

 latitude of about 6"2° ; at the 

 same time, from longitude a few 

 degrees easterly, to that of moro 

 t.ian 30° west ; and, that the \(.% 



still continued to advance along 

 the land to the south\>ard. 



In the year 1803, the Henrietta 

 of Whitby, while prosecuting the 

 wliale-fishery, was, by a southerly 

 storm, entangled among the ice in 

 the latitude of 80*^ north, and 

 longitude of 6* east ; and after- 

 Avards accompanied it in its drift 

 to the south-westward, at the daily 

 rate of from ten to fifteen miles. 

 They savT several bears ; and at 

 one time they conceived that the 

 land of West Greenland was with- 

 in sight. The ice pressed dread- 

 fully around them, and accumu- 

 lated in amazing heaps ; but pro- 

 videntially, the ship always escaped 

 the heaviest crushes. 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 their escape, in latitude 

 about 733° north, and longitude 9* 

 west. 



When treating of the pressure 

 of fields, I slightly alluded to a cir- 

 cumstance which occurred within 

 my own observation on my last 

 voyage to Greenland (1814). 

 While it affords a suitable illus- 

 tration of the tremendous effects 

 produced by the collision of those 

 prodigious sheets of ice, it is no 

 less applicable to the subject in 

 hand ; I shall therefore give a 

 sketch of the whole occurrence. 



In the beginning of jMay, we 

 entered, with the ship Esk of 

 Whitby, a spacious opening of the 

 ice, to a distance of ten or twelve 

 leagues from the exterior, wherein 

 we were tempted to stay, from the 

 appearance of a great number of 

 whales. On the «Jth of May, the 

 weather calmed, the frost was 

 severe, and the ship was soon 



fixed 



