[ 8o ] 



" but then not clear from ice, in which they drove about. I 

 * 6 never heard of any difcoveries made there, as they have always 

 " been fifhers, who, driving with the ice to the Northward, leave 

 " that direction upon getting room; and when now and then the 

 *' fea has been free from ice, that has happened commonly in the 

 " months of June and July. In 1763,, I fpoke with a Scotch 

 " Captain in Greenland, who told me he had been to 83 deg. 

 " that the fea was then free from ice, but that he had made no 

 <e difcoveries, without mentioning any more particulars, for we 

 " alk after nothing but Whales. When I fpoke to him it was 

 " in July, and then we could get no further North than 79 deg. 

 " 30 min. for the ice. In mort, we can feldom proceed much 

 " higher than 80 deg. and a half, but almoft always to that 

 " latitude, for it feems that the conjunction of the currents 

 " often faftens the ice there. I rimed laft year from 80 deg. 

 "25 min. to 80 deg. 35 min. according to the land we made 

 <{ afterwards. 



" But in the year 1707, Captain Cornells Gillis, having gone 

 " without any ice far to the Northward of 81 deg. failed to the 

 " North of the Seven Iflands, proceeded from thence Eaft, and 

 " afterwards S. E. remaining to the Eaft of the North Eaft 

 " land, when coming again to latitude 80 deg. he difcovered 

 " about 25 miles b Eaft, from the country to the N. E. very 

 " high lands, on which, as far as we know, no body has ever 

 44 been. As to the feafon when the Spitzbergen feas may be 

 " expected to be free from ice, I believe, according to myobfer- 

 s * vations, that the moft open fea to the Northward generally 

 " happens in the month of September, but then the nights begin 

 " and make the navigation dangerous. I am, &c. 



" JOHN WALIG." 



b Fifteen to a degree, at the Equator. 



A SHORT 



