ofu direct Passage over the Pole* 305 



which stopped the progress of Cook's successors/' was moveable^ 

 or no where touched the bottom. _ _ 



The writer of Cook's voyage was of the same opinion about 

 the ice nearest the sliip, though it rested on a foundation that 

 perhaps might not equally apply to the largest masses of ice 

 further to the northward, and not seen. His words are— ^Ve 

 had twice traversed the sea in lines nearly parallel with tne run 

 we had just made ; and in the first of those traverses we were 

 not able to penetrate so far north by eight or ten leagues as in 

 the second ; and that in the last we had again found an united 

 body of ice, generally about five leagues to the southward ot its 

 position in the preceding run.— As this proves, that the large 

 compact fields of ice which toe saw were moveable or diminishirig} 

 at the same time, it does not leave any well-founded expectation 

 of advancing much further, in the most favourable season. 



though this proves that the floating ice smz, shifted its posi- 

 tion, both to the northward and to the southward, but chtejti/ 

 ihe latter, as will be seen further proved— Yet, it does not prove 

 that the larger masses to the northward, which they did not see ^ 

 might not be immoveable, by grounding at the bottom ; if the 

 water became shoaler in that direction, as our navigators ap- 

 peared to find it was, as far as they advanced.— Now should 

 there have been any such immoveable masses of ice to the north- 

 Ward, it would in 'some degree account why the current, which 

 the writer in the Review supposes to set with such " violence 

 from the Atlantic, should not have carried the ice away with it 

 towards the pole, where there may be none.—Bx\t, if the whole 

 of this ice was moveable, it proves, that whether there was a small 

 current setting to the northward, or not, and whether at the sur- 

 face, and underneath, or both, there must have been a much 

 stronger current frotn the northward, or something else, which 

 st\\\ more powerfully -nnpeWed the ice to the southward in de- 

 fiance of the other, as well as of the wind, which appears to have 

 been generally from the S.W.when strongest. It is saia m Look * 

 voyage, " it may be observed, that in the year 17/8 we did not 

 meet with the ice till we advanced to the latitude of 70 , on Au- 

 gust 17th, and that then, we found it in compact bodies, extend- 

 ing as far as the eve could reach, and of which, a part or the 

 whole was movealJle ; since by Us drifting down upon us, we 

 narrowly escaped being hemmed in between it and the land. Un 

 the Asiatic side, they encountered large extensive fields ot ice, 

 and were sure to meet with it about the latitude of 70" qiute across, 

 whenever they attempted to stand to the northward. On the 2bth 

 of August, thev were obstructed by it in 69"! in such quantities, 

 an made it imiJossible to pass either to the north or west. In the 

 second attempt thev could do little more, fw they were never 



Vol.51,No,240.>n7l818. U able 



