t 3 
cumference. Some Hundreds of thefe we fometimes 
fee in our Voyage here, all in Sight at once, if the 
Weather is clear. Some of them are frequently feen 
on the Coafts and Banks of Newfoundland and New - 
England , though much diminifhed. 
Whenl have been becalmed in Hudfori s- Streights 
for Three or Four Tides together, I have taken my 
Boat, and laid clofe to the Side of one of them, 
founded, and found ioo Fathom Water all round it. . 
The Tide floweth here above Four Fathom ; and I 
have obferved, by Marks upon a Body of Ice, the 
Tide to rife and fall that Difference, which was a 
Certainty of its being aground. Likewife, in a Har- 
bour in the Ifland of Refolution , where I continued 
Four Days, Three of thefe Ifles of Ice (as we call them) 
came aground. I founded along by the Side of one of 
them, quite round it, and found 3 2 Fathom Water, 
and the Height above the Surface but 10 Yards j an- 
other was 28 Fathom under, and the perpendicular 
Height but Nine Yards above the Water. 
I can in no other manner account for the Aggre- 
gation of fuch large Bodies of Ice but this : All along 
the Coafts of Streights <r Davis , both Sides of Baffin's- 
Bay , Hudf on’s- Streights, Anticofh , or Labr adore, the 
Land is very high and bold, and 100 Fathoms, or* 
more, dole to the Shore. Thefe Shores have many 
Inlets or Fuirs, the Cavities of which are filled up 
with Ice and Snow, by the almoft perpetual Winters 
there, and frozen to the Ground, increafing for Four, 
Five, or Seven Years, till a kind of Deluge or Land- 
flood, which commonly happens in that Space of 
Time throughout thole Parts, breaks them loofe, and 
launches them into the Streights or Ocean, where they 
are - 
