[ 7* ] 



the company not loung a (hip in twenty years, and the feamen 

 who are ufed to it are not troubled with any apprehenfions 

 about it. It is no objection to this, that we hear almoft every 

 feafon of fhips loft in the ice on the whale fifhery ; for thefe 

 veffels, inftead of avoiding, induftrioufly feek the ice, as amongft 

 it the whales are' more commonly found, than in the open fea. 

 Being thus continually amongft the ice, it is no wonder that 

 they are fometimes furrounded by it ; and yet the men, when 

 the mips are loft, generally fpeaking, efcape. But in the feas 

 near the Pole, it is very probable, there is little or no ice, for 

 that is commonly formed in bays and rivers during winter, and 

 does not break up and get into the fea till the latter end of 

 March or the beginning of April, when it begins to thaw upon 

 the fhores. It is alfo, when formed, very uncertain as to its 

 continuance, being broken and driven about by the vehemence 

 of the winds. As a proof of this we have an inftance of a veflel 

 frozen in one of the harbours of Hudfon's Bay, which, by the 

 breaking of the ice, drove to fea, and. though it was Chriftmas, 

 found the Straits quite free from ice", which are frequently 

 choaked with it in May and June, and made a fafe and fpeedy 

 pafl'age home. All our accounts agree that in very high latitudes 

 there is lefs ice. Barentz, when his fhip was frozen in Nova 

 Zembla, heard the ice broken with a mod horrible noife by an 

 impetuous fea from the North, a full proof that it was open. 

 It is the invariable tradition of the Samoides and Tartars, who 

 live beyond the Waygat, that the fea is open to the North of 

 Nova Zembla all the year; and the moft knowing people in 

 Ruffia are of the fame opinion. Thefe authorities ought certainly 

 to have more weight than fimple conjectures. 



n Mr. Dobbs's Account of Hudfon's Bay, p. 69, 70. 



The 



