C 56 ] 



fea, it feems highly prohable that this is the proper time of 

 pufhing to the Northward, as the ice in fuch rivers cannot 

 be then completely broken up. What other ice therefore may 

 be feen at this time is probably the remains of what was dif- 

 embogued during the preceding fummer. 



Another proof of this arifes from what happened in 1773, for 

 the Carcafe and Race Horfe were obftrucled, at 8o° and an half, 

 by an immenfe bank of ice, during part of the months of July and 

 Auguft; but four Greenland matters were a degree further to the 

 Northward, during the p months of May and June, in the fame 

 year. 



No one winters in Spitzbergen, but fome few Ruffians, from 

 whom however we have not been informed what happens 

 during that feafon, though it mould feem from the obfervations 

 of Barentz, thofe of the Ruffians in Maloy Brun, and a Ihip 

 having pufhed into the Atlantic, from Hudfon's Bay, during the 

 midft of December q , that the Northern Seas are then navi- 

 gable. 



For the fame reafon probably Clipperton r , who pafTed the 

 Straits of Magellan in the midft of winter, faw no ice, which is 

 fo frequently met with at Midfummer by thofe who fail to 

 the Southward of Cape Horn. 



I take this opportunity of recapitulating the years hnce 1 746 

 during which it appears from the inftances 1 have ftated, that the 

 fea to the North of Spitzbergen hath been open, fo as to permit 



p See the Probability of reaching the North Pole, p. 4, 45, 46, and 5 7. 

 1 See ibid. p. 83. 



r See Callander's Collection of Voyages, vol. III. p. 46 1» Frezier 

 was as far South as 58 ' in the middle of May, and faw no ice, though 

 he fpeaks of a S. E. wind as cold. 



s Viz. 1746, 1751, 1752, 1754, 1756, 1759, 1763, 1765, 1766, 



5 7 6 9> l 11 l > and I 773* 



attempts 



