126 A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY 
these observations may be a little out, as the altitudes 
were taken with the natural horizon, which was co-. 
vered with ice. The error thereby occasioned cannot 
amount, however, to any thing very considerable in 
the latitude, but I conceive it best to mention under 
what circumstances observations are taken, when 
there is any chance of their being doubtful. 
Thursday, 16th. — We had the pleasure of finding 
this morning that the strong north-west wind which 
we have had during these two days past has forced the 
ice off from the land to a little distance; no time 
was lost, therefore, in availing ourselves of this op- 
portunity of proceeding ; but our success was not of 
long duration, for, after getting between eighteen and 
twenty miles to the westward, we were stopped again 
by the ice, which extended in a compact body from 
the land to the southward and westward as far as we 
could see. It was very heavy ice, but it was broken 
up so much that we could not get a piece large 
enough to make the ships fast to; and the water was 
found to be so deep, that it was not deemed prudent 
to anchor so close in with the shore as it would be 
necessary to do; we, therefore, stood back to the 
eastward again, and at half past eight o’clock we 
made fast to a hummock of ice aground in fifteen 
fathoms, about seven or eight miles to the 
westward of the place whence we started in the 
morning. After passing a headland four or five 
miles to the westward of where we made fast this 
evening, we found that the land trended to the north- 
ward and westward, and that its formation beyond 
this cape was also quite different from any part of the 
coast to the eastward, being more like the land on 
