SPITZBERGEN AND GREENLAND. 5 



The 9th Avas the same weather, and cold as before, the 

 Avind south-M'est and by west. In the afternoon a fin-fish^ 

 swam by our ship, which we took at first to be a ichale, 

 before ^\e saw the high fins of his tail and came near to it. 

 AVc had let down our sloop from the ship, but that labour 

 Avas lost, for he was not worth taking. From the 25th of 

 April to this day we had not taken the sun's altitude ; we 

 Avere then in seA'enty degrees and three minutes, and sailed 

 towards the north and the ice. It may seem strange that we 

 so often sailed to the ice and from it again, but I shall giA^e 

 you a reason for that hereafter. 



The 12th, it AA^as stormy and excessiA^e cold, the wind 

 North, and aa'c had the greatest frosts in this Month of 3Iay. 



On the 14th, the wind Avas north-west, fine weather with 

 sunshine ; we were Avithin seventy-fiA^e degrees and twenty- 

 two minutes. We told twenty ships about us ; the sea was 

 A-ery even, and we hardly felt any AA'ind, and yet it was very 

 cold. In this place the sea becomes smooth presently again 

 after a storm, chiefly AAdien the Avind bloAVs from the ice ; but 

 Avhen it blows ofl" the sea, it alAA'ays makes a great sea. The 

 same day we saw a ichale, not far off from our ship ; Ave put 

 out four boats from on board after him, but this labour was also 

 in A'ain, for he run under the water and we saw him no more. 



On the 19th, Ave had a dull sunshine, the Avind was north, 

 and it was so calm that we could hardly feel it ; we rowed 

 in the ship-boat to the ice, and killed tAA^o sea-hounds (or 

 scales); there were so many on the ice they could not be 

 numbered. 



On the 20th, it was exceeding cold, so that the very sea 

 was all frozen over ; yet it was so calm and still that we 

 could hardly perceive the Avind, Avhich was north ; there 

 Avere nine ships in our company, which sailed about the ice ; 

 Ave found still, the longer we sailed the bigger the ice. 



^ " Fimien-fish." {Bolo:na Physalus, 0. Fabr., Physalus Antiquorum ? 

 of modern authors.) 



