[ *5 J 



with ice, fo that a waggon might have paffed over it in any di- 

 rection \. 



I have alfo received the following account from an officer in 

 the royal Navy, who was not many years ago on the Newfound- 

 land ftation. 



In the middle of June, the whole {traits of Bellifle were covered 

 in the fame manner with the harbour of Lewilburgh, and for 

 three weeks together a carriage might have palled from one 

 fhore to the other; but during a (ingle night the ice had almoft 

 entirely difappeared. Such is the fudden accumulation of ice, 

 in latitudes 24 and 30 degrees to the Southward of Wood's 

 fituation. 



Linfchoten afferts, that, being in the ftraits of Weygate the 

 laft day of July, he was told by the Samoieds on that coaft, that 

 in ten or twelve days afterwards the ice in the ftraits would be 

 all gone, though they were then quite blocked up with it. 

 When he repaffed thefe ftraits afterwards on the 13th of Auguft, 

 he found not the leaft veftige of it, fo quickly do thefe huge 

 maffes diffolve after they once begin to thaw m . 



On the other hand, Callander admits, that by accumulation 

 of floating ice places are now inacceffible which were not for- 

 merly fo, and inftances the eaftern coaft of Greenland, as alfo 

 Frobilher's ftraits Kergulen, in his account of Iceland, likewife 

 mentions, that the fea between Iceland and Greenland was en- 

 tirely clofed during the whole Summer of 1766. 



1 On the 19th of December, 1759, the Potowmack, in a part where it 

 was two miles broad, and nearly in N. lat. of only 38, was frozen 

 entirely over in one night, when the preceding day had been very 

 mild and temperate. — Burnaby's Travels through N. America, p. 59. 



Camden, in his Annals of Elizabeth, afferts, that Davis reached 83, 

 where the ftraits, called after him, were narrowed to 40 leagues — See 

 Camden, Anno 1 585. We have not fince been able to proceed fo far to 

 the Northward. 



m Callander's Pref. p. 38. 



n Ibid. 



E I mall 



