GREENLAND OR POLAR ICE. 



317 



so great without, and the wind so violent, that we 

 dared not to hazard an attempt to force through 

 this remaining obstacle. After waiting about 

 thirty hours, on the morning of the 28th of May, 

 the weather cleared, and the wind abated. The 

 sea stream, which, the preceding day, did not ex* 

 ceed two hundred yards in breadth, was general- 

 ly augmented to upwards of a mile broad. One 

 place alone was visible, where the breadth was 

 less considerable ; to that we directed our course, 

 forced the ship into it, and by prompt and vi- 

 gorous exertions, were enabled to surmount every 

 difficulty^ and accomplish our final escape into the 

 free ocean. 



I have been thus minute in the relation of the 

 progress of our extrication from an alarming, 

 though not very uncommon, state of besetment, 

 both for the purpose of giving a faint idea of the 

 difficulties and dangers which those engaged in 

 the whale-fishery have occasionally to encounter, 

 and also more particularly to shew, the extraordi- 

 nary manner in which ships are imperceptibly 

 immured amidst the ice, by the regularity of its 

 drift to the south-westward. 



From this narrative, it will appear, that, not- 

 withstanding we only penetrated 25 or 30 miles 

 on our ingress, and among ice most widely dis- 

 posed ; yet, before our regress was accomplished, 

 we had passed on a direct course a distance of 

 55 "or 40 leagues, whereof one-half was in con- 



