CREEISILAND OR POLAR ICE. 



297 



nuosity, :extending two or three degrees to the 

 northward, and then south-easterly to Cherry 

 Island ; — ^which having passed, it assumes a di- 

 rect course a little south of east, until it forms a 

 junction with the Siberian or Nova Zemblan 

 coast. 



That remarkable promontory, formed by the 

 sudden stretch of the ice to the north, constitutes 

 the line of separation between the east or whale- 

 fishing, and west or sealing ice of the fishers : 

 And the deep bay lying to the east of this point, 

 invariably forms the only pervious track for pro- 

 ceeding to fishing latitudes northward. When 

 the ice at the extremity of this bay occurs so 

 strong and compact as to prevent the approach to 

 the shores of Spitzbergen, and the advance 

 northward beyond the latitude of 75° or 76°, it 

 is said to be a close season ; and, on the contrary, 

 it is called an open season, when an uninterrupted 

 navigation extends along the western coast of 

 Spitzbergen to Hackluyt's Headland. In an open 

 season, therefore, a large channel of water lies be- 

 tween the land and the ice, from 20 to 50 leagues 

 in breadth, extending to the latitude of 79° or 80°, 

 and gradually approximating the coast, until it at 

 length effects a coalition with the north-western 

 extremity, by a semi-circular head. When the 

 continuity of the mass of ice, intervening between 

 West Greenland and Nova Zembla, is thus inter- 

 rupted in an open season, the ice again makes its 



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