24 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1770. 



pable mistake, is very difficult to say : he most certainly had as great an oppor- 

 tunity of informing himself of the truth of what he wrote on this subject, as 

 any person whatever ; and in this case had not the least inducement, whatever 

 he might be thought to have in others, to speak contrary to his knowledge. 



July 29 they hauled the wind to the southward, the ice being quite thick 

 a-head. At ig** hauled the wind to n. w. and stood through the ledge of ice, 

 as it appeared to reach quite to Cape Walsingham, which now bore s. w. It 

 consisted of large pieces close jambed together : in the place where they 

 attempted to pass through, it was not quite so close. It is really very curious 

 to see a ship working among ice. Every man on board has his place assigned 

 him ; and the captain takes his in the most convenient one for seeing when the 

 ship approaches very near the piece of ice which is directly a-head of her, 

 which he has no sooner announced, than the ship is moving in a quite contrary 

 direction to what it was before, by which it avoids striking the piece of ice, or 

 at least, striking it with that force which it would otherwise have done. In this 

 manner they turned the ship several times in a minute ; the wind blowing a 

 strong gale all the time. 



August 7, about 5, saw the low land of Cape Churchill, bearing from the s. 

 to s. w. b. s. but the haziness of the horizon made the land put on a different 

 appearance every 4 or 5™. I cannot help taking notice of one circumstance, 

 says Mr. W., as it appears to me a very remarkable one. Though we saw the 

 land extremely plain from off the quarter deck, and as it were lifted up in the 

 haze, in the same manner as the ice had always done ; yet the man at the mast- 

 head declared he could see nothing of it. This appeared so extraordinary to 

 me, that I went to the main-top-mast-head myself to be satisfied of the truth ; 

 and though I could see it very plainly both before I went up, and after I came 

 down, yet could I see nothing like the appearance of land when I was there. 

 I had often admired the singular appearance of the ice in these parts, which I 

 have seen lifted up 2° or 3° at a distance of 8 or 10 miles, though when we have 

 come to it, we have found it scarcely higher than the surface of the water. On 

 the 8th of Aug. they arrived at the Factory in Churchill River, their desired 

 station. After breakfast, on the 10th, the surgeon of the factory was so kind 

 as to walk with them several miles, to shew them the country. The soil, as far as 

 they went, consisted entirely of high bare rocks, or loose gravel : among the 

 latter, there shoots up, in the lower places, many dwarf willows, and birch ; in 

 the higher ones some small gooseberry bushes ; but these do not grow upright 

 as in England, but creep along the gravel like the bramble brier. They saw 

 besides these some strawberries, many cranberries, and a few bilberries ; but 

 none of these were yet ripe, except a few of the last. They also saw some few 

 plants creeping among the moss ; but none tbat they knew, except the dande- 

 lion and small yarrow. 



