126 
VOYAGE TO GREENLAND. 
ance from the powerful influence of the sun, which 
we had experienced in the commencement of the 
week ; the snow that had generally incrusted its 
surface, was nearly melted away, and the tempera- 
ture of the day, the thermometer being at 36, had 
much contributed to its dissolution. At one o’clock 
a thick fog set in, but we, being tolerably free from 
ice, felt less anxiety than is usual on such occa- 
sions ; about six o’clock the fog cleared, and we 
changed our course to the westward, determined to 
try what a higher latitude might produce, but we 
had not proceeded longer than five hours, when, 
towards the north-west, the brightest ice blink I had 
ever seen, stretched across the horizon from the 
south-west to north-east ; I beheld this splendid 
phenomenon with very great concern, as it foreboded 
further opposition to the much-desired object of get- 
ting to the western land. Being joined by the 
Experiment of Hull, and the Jean of Peterhead, the 
masters came on board and gave the sorrowful 
tidings of the impracticability of getting near the 
west land, which they had been trying, on the 
assurance that the whales had resorted to it last 
year: they stated, that they had endeavoured to 
effect that object, from the 78° to the 71° of latitude, 
but that a range of impenetrable ice had compelled 
them to relinquish the attempt. They also re- 
marked, that the ice had not pursued its usual 
summer course ; that fields and floes were more 
numerous ; that the fields were fixed, and that 
the floes had not gone to the south. The obstruc- 
