SIO GREENLAND OR POLAR ICE. 



annual occurrence. A few striking incidents shall 

 suffice. 



From a narrative of the loss of several of the 

 Dutch Greenland fleet in the year 1777, we learn^ 

 that the ship Wilhelmina was moored to a field 

 of ice on the 22d of June, in the usual fishing- 

 station, along with a large fleet of other whalers. 

 On the 25th, the Wilhelmina was closely beset. 

 The crew were obliged to work incessantly for 

 eight days, in sawing a dock in the field, wherein 

 the ship was at that time preserved. 



On the 25th of July, the ice slacked, and the 

 ship was towad to the eastward, during four days 

 laborious rowing with the boats. At the extremi- 

 ty of the opening, they joined four ships, and all 

 of them were soon again beset by the ice. Short- 

 ly afterwards, they were drifted within sight of 

 the coast of Old Greenland, in about 75f of 

 north latitude. On the 15th of August, nine sail 

 were collected together ; and about the ^Oth, af- 

 ter sustaining a dreadful storm, and an immense 

 pressure of the ice, which accumulated around 

 them twenty or thirty feet high, — two of the ships 

 were wrecked. Two more were wrecked four or 

 five days afterwards, together with two others 

 at a distance from them. On the 24th, Iceland 

 was in sight ; some of the ice was in motion, and 

 two ships seemed to escape. Another was lost on 

 the 7th of September; and, on the 13th, the 

 Wilhelmina was crushed to pieces by the fall of 



