110 
VOYAGE TO GREENLAND. 
Lat. by observation, 78° 3' N., Long, by chronome- 
ter, 9° 30' W. 
^ The wind changed to the south-west 
during the night, and blew very hard ; in 
the morning, therefore, every inlet was tried in 
search of a passage, but in vain ; in the course of 
the day we returned to the part that had closed 
yesterday, when we found that the fury of the gale 
had torn from these immense regions of ice, pieces 
of several acres in extent, and had crumbled others 
to atoms, leaving the scattered fragments so numer- 
ous, that we were obliged to abandon all idea 
of getting through in that direction; in searching 
for another opening, the ice became so extremely 
crowded, that the ship was struck by several heavy 
pieces, with a violence that made it to recoil with 
the shock, and which nothing but its extraordinary 
strength could have withstood. Toward the evening 
the wind ceased, and became calm with a thick fog, 
when four ships besides our own were moored to a 
large piece of ice to prevent their drifting. 
On the fog having cleared away, and 
the wind blowing strong from the north- 
east, we again resumed our labour of exploring a 
passage to the westward. In pursuing this object, 
nothing could exceed the anxiety of our hopes and 
fears during the three following days ; while those 
impediments which had so repeatedly defeated our 
design, continued to render its accomplishment im- 
possible. It was now fully ascertained by our com- 
