VOYAGE TO SPITZBERGEN. 53 



The fury of the ocean is but the least of the 

 enemies the sailor has to contend with. If the 

 ship, during a storm, should be encircled by ice, 

 there is hardly a possibility of avoiding impend- 

 ing fate. 



8th, Discovered the south point of Prince 

 Charles' Island, bearing east, distant six leagues. 



On the 11th, we made Fair Foreland, or Vogel 

 Hook, the northern extremity of Charles 1 Island 

 and on the 13th, we reached the southern extre- 

 mity of the westernmost cape, forming Cross-bay in 

 Spitzbergen, at a short distance from which, we 

 were made fast to a large iceberg. 



Spitzbergen is a general appellation given to a 

 vast assemblage of frozen islands, lying between 

 South Cape, in 76° 30', and Verlegan Hook, in 

 80° 7' north latitude. Its greatest breadth is from 

 the westernmost part of Mauritius, or Amsterdam 

 Island, called Hackluyt's Headland, to the ex- 

 treme east point of North-Eastland, comprising 

 from 9° to nearly 24° east longitude. 



The inhospitable nature of this frozen climate 

 has prevented Spitzbergen from being properly ex- 

 plored. The best charts that have been published 

 are extremely defective, and its larger divisions are 

 but imperfectly defined. It could nowise interest 

 the reader to peruse a dry catalogue of headlands or 



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