142 Account of a Voyage to SpifJJ-ergeft, 



on the fca fide, badly paved with flat ftones. All the houfes 

 are built of quarry Itoiie : ihofe of the rich are roomy, lirong-, 

 convenient, and well furnilhed ; thofe of the poor are fmall, 

 and very fmoky, ior want of a proper arrangement of the 

 chimneys. 



Though the place lies in 60° north latitude, the winters 

 are not feverc; they are, iiowcver, wet and flormy. ' The 

 harbour is very capacious and fiife, and the anchoring ground 

 good. About twenty or more Englifh Greenlandnien were 

 lying here at anchor, and fcyerai Dutch herring-bufles. 

 Having filled our empty water-caflcs, and laid in a flock of 

 fowls, eggs, geneva, &c., we took leave of our kind friends on 

 fhore, and, the wind being foutherly, hove up our anchor 

 and fet fail for the ice. 



As we advanced to the northward the night became 

 fliortcr till we came near North Cape in lat. 71° 10', when we 

 Eiad no night at all. We were overtaken in that latitude by 

 a mofl; tremendous gale of wind from the north-eall, which 

 lafted three days and nights. Our fliip lay more than once 

 on her beam-ends, and every one on board thought fhe 

 could never right again ; but providentially we weathered 

 tlie sjale, A ftonn in thofc high latitudes is fo intenfely 

 cold, wlien it blows from the north or north-eaft, that it is 

 impoffible to look in the wind's eye, as the cold is fuch as 

 literally to tear the ikin oft' the face. 



In about 76' northern latitude we meet with ice floating 

 in fmall round cakes, by the failors called pancakes : you 

 (ail through this ice in perfectly imooth uatcr; wliich, from 

 being of a green colour in the North Sea, blue to the north- 

 ward of Shetland and Fcrro, grows gradually of a darker 

 colour, and looks now of a deep black dye. We failed fe- 

 veral days through thofe floating ice-cakes. When in a ftill 

 higher latitude, an open black-looking water re-appcars ; 

 and when you reach about 77- or 78 you pafs through 

 large maflfes of floating ice 20 or 30 fathom thick, and fome 

 of them ^vc or fix times bigger thaii your ov\n veflel. Groat 

 6 <-'ii'-' 



