WINTER ICE. 165 



Straits ; lastly, enveloping South Cape, it ex- 

 tends up the west coast until it meets, about 

 Prince Charles' roreland, another vast body of 

 ice, which has travelled round Hakluyt's Head- 

 land; and Spitzbergen is enveloped for the 

 winter. 



I believe that the sea itself, to the south and 

 west of Spitzbergen, would not freeze over far 

 to the outside of the shallow bays and gulfs, 

 were it not thus crowded and encumbered with 

 heavy drift-ice, continually swept down from 

 the colder regions to the north and east. 



Once the arctic current fairly gains this 

 preponderance over the gulf stream, it is quite 

 inconceivable how rapidly the ice sweeps round 

 the coast and fills up all the bays before it. 

 I have been told that a very few days suffice 

 to surround the whole of Spitzbergen with an 

 impenetrable barrier ; and I can readily under- 

 stand that such must be the case, for in the 

 end of August, we found so strong a current 

 setting round Black Point, that six men pulling 

 their hardest could not move the boat against 

 it ; and I am positive that I have seen the 

 current running amongst the Thousand Islands 

 at the rate of seven or eight miles an hour ! 



Woe betide the luckless vessel which at this 



M 3 



