VOYAGE TO GREENLAND. 
27 
prised at the great height of many of the pieces, 
forming extensive pyramids, and a lofty dome, which 
was observable at some distance. We now entered 
a bay of ice, about fifteen miles in depth, but the 
extent of it was beyond the reach of the eye to 
determine. Its boundary presented an unceasing 
variety of forms ; but those that most arrested my 
attention, resembled sarcophagi, cromlechs, and that 
beautiful relic of antiquity on Salisbury plain, Stone- 
henge. The wind was now blowing a strong breeze ; 
and the working of the ship to clear the large float- 
ing incumbrances, with which the bay was studded, 
was a piece of sailing, that excelled any thing of 
the kind I had ever before witnessed. At the main 
topgallant- mast head, the most elevated situation in 
the ship, a screen of a cylindrical form, termed ‘‘ a 
crow's was fixed, to afford shelter from the 
severity of the weather, where, by the command of 
an extensive view, openings in the ice might be 
observed, dangers avoided, whales discovered, and 
movements made in order to enable the ship to 
attain its destined object. Here our captain took 
his station in all difficult and arduous situations. 
At twelve o’clock, having made arrangements for 
entering the ice, he surveyed the surrounding scene, 
to discover the most practicable part, which he found 
to consist of a small neck of ice, about thirty yards 
in breadth, that separated the ocean from some 
* The “ crow’s nest” is often formed and hooped in the manner 
of a cask. 
