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Mr. Stephens, who went many voyages to the Eaft- Indies, and 

 made much ufe of the Lunar method of finding the Longitude, 

 in which he is very expert, tells me this 16th of March, 1773, 

 that he was formeflv two voyages on the Greenland fhhery; that 

 in the 2d, in the year 1754, he was driven off Spitzbergen, toge- 

 ther with a Dutch fhip, by a S. S. E. wind, N. N. Wefterly by 

 compafs into latitude 84 degrees and a half, or within 5 degrees 

 and a half of the Pole, in which latitude he was near the end of 

 the month of May. They faw no land after leaving Hackluits 

 Headland, (or the Northern-moft part of Spitzbergen,) and were 

 back in the month of June. Did not find the cold exceflive, and 

 ufed little more than common clothing ; met with but little ice, 

 and the lefs the further they went to the Northward : met with 

 no drift-wood. It is always clear weather with a North wind, 

 and thick weather with a Southerly wind ; neverthelefs they 

 could take the Sun's altitude for the latitude moft days. The 

 fea is quite fmooth among the ice, as in the river Thames, and 

 fo they alfo found it to the North of Spitzbergen. Met with no 

 ice higher than the fhip's gunnel. Imagines it would hardly 

 have been colder under the Pole, than they experienced it$ 

 although he thinks the cold rather increafed on going North- 

 ward. Thinks the currents are very variable, and have no certain 

 or conftant direction. Says he has often tafted the ice, when 

 the fea water has been let to run or dry off it, and always found 

 it frefh. That the fea-water will freeze againft the fhip's bows 

 and rigging, but he never faw it freeze in the fhip. That it 

 never freezes in the pumps. A little piece of ice detained under 

 a large piece of ice, when it gets loofe from it and comes up to 

 the fur face of the water, is very dangerous, it emerging with a 

 force which will fometimes knock a hole in the bottom of the 

 {hip. The Dutch fhip which was driven with theirs from 

 I Spitzbergen 



