50 A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY 
pools of water, from one of which we supplied the 
ships (with water) two days ago. 
Although it must certainly be admitted (from the 
circumstance that I have just mentioned), that the 
sun contributes very materially to the-destruction of 
the ice, yet I concur in opinion with the intrepid 
navigator, Davis, and the illustrious Cook, that the 
sea is the great destroyer of the ice in these regions. 
We find that there is a constant current setting to 
the southward, which has been observed, indeed, 
more or less, ever since we entered the Straits. Its 
daily rate, and the exact course it takes, is not, in- 
deed, very easily ascertained with entire precision ; 
for the various courses we are obliged to make 
amongst the ice, are such as to baffle all attempts at 
comparing the latitude observed with that deduced 
from the dead reckoning ; and I have no doubt but 
the ice affects, in some measure, the direction of the 
current near the surface. 
Tuesday, 20th. —On account of the fogginess of 
the weather, we got so close to a large iceberg, to- 
day, before it was seen, that we were obliged to 
lower our boats in great haste to tow the ship off 
from it; and, notwithstanding the smartness with 
which every thing was done, she went over a tongue 
of it that projected some distance from the body of 
the berg. This tongue happened, fortunately, how- 
ever, to be about twenty feet below the surface of 
the water, so that we went over without touching, 
and, in a few minutes more, got clear, altogether, 
of this threatening mass of ice; such I must cer- 
tainly call it, for the side of it that we ran along 
was consideranly higher than our mast-head, and 
some parts of it projected beyond. A perpendicular 
