80 Freminville's Voyage to tJie North Pole. 



ascertain this mountain for the jocul of Knapafells, on the 

 point of Wester, to the S. E. of the island. 



Being thus assured of our position, we bore away at large, 

 keeping always to the E. N. E. We were in the track 

 wherein the maps generally place the Isle of Enckuysen, the 

 existence of which was, nevertheless, considered as very 

 doubtful. In our course we must have passed directly over 

 the point wherein the chart of Bellin places it. As the prob- 

 lem of its existence was a matter of some interest to resolve, 

 and we could effect it without going out of our course, we 

 stationed some of our company on the look-out. 



At night-fall some of the men gave notice of a shoal, or 

 ridge, a-head ; in fact, the sea, at a little distance in front, 

 seemed to us covered with thousands of birds, of the kind of 

 petrels and seagulls, the vast numbers of which, from their 

 white plumage, resembled at a distance the froth of waves 

 rippling over breakers ; we went about a mile to windward of 

 the pretended shoal, and discovered it to be the floating and 

 half putrid carcase of a dead whale, thus serving for food to 

 an immense multitude of sea-fowl. 



Next day, May 12, we discovered land; it was, in reality, 

 the Isle of Enckuysen, to the N. N. W. of us, at the distance 

 of about two leagues and a half. We fixed the position of its 

 southerly point at 64 deg. 54 min. lat. and 12 deg. 48 min. 

 long. W. 



The Isle of Enckuysen, generally placed in the charts much 

 too westerly of its real situation, and too near the coast of 

 Iceland, appeared to us to be about four leagues in extent, in 

 the direction of N. N. E. to S. S. W. ; it has just elevation 

 enough not to render the approach dangerous. 



May 14th, we crossed the Arctic polar circle at 10 deg. 14 

 min. long. W. 



May 17th. In the latitude of 72 deg. we noticed, with sur- 

 prize, the first floating ice ; it was unusual for the season to 

 meet with ice so early ; it is usually to be found about the 

 middle of May, but only in from 76 to 80 degrees of latitude. 

 Captain Phipps sent, in 1773, from England, to explore the 

 passage of the Pole, could see no ice till he had reached the 

 N. Vi. part of the coast of Spitzberg. 



Next day we came abreast of a very large island of floating- 

 ice, with fleaks of prodigious dimensions; these masses, doubt- 

 less detached from the immense banks that surround the 

 Spitzberg, from the diversity of their shapes, and their curious 

 infractions and indentations, presented a spectacle altogether 

 unique for most of our company. Their friction produced a 



