80 
VOYAGE TO GREENLAND. 
The crew havinjg^ recovered from their 
^ * fatigue, and the ship being well cleansed 
from the grease and filth that attended the unpleasant 
operation of making off, we unmoored from the ice 
at ten o’clock, and sailed to the southward, travers- 
ing a vast space of ocean, the face of which was 
often studded with ice of varied forms, and of dif- 
ferent extent from a rood to several acres in surface. 
Often did the ship, under full sail, pass through 
openings scarcely wider than itself, and frequently 
not only was the horizon obscured in a mist, but 
the ship became wrapt in a vapour so dense, as to 
render our situation extremely perilous among the 
numerous obstacles that lay in our way. After 
several fruitless attempts to find a passage from the 
ice, we at length succeeded, again entered the open 
sea, and, not having seen a whale for several days, 
steered to the northward, in hopes of further and 
better success. 
We sailed by the side of a long piece of 
June 4. called a sea-stream ; it lay in the direc- 
tion of north-east and south-west, often varying from 
that line in different meanderings, yet keeping its 
contiguity ; from the mast-head the eye was unable 
to determine its extent, but, from what passed un- 
der my observation, it might fairly be presumed to 
be at least fifty miles ; it varied in breadth from one 
hundred yards to several miles. This curious phe- 
nomenon is not generally found, and the imagina- 
tion is at a loss to conceive by what agency the 
detached pieces, of which it is composed, are con- 
