288 
LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. 
after sailing for several hours with a fair wind towards 
the land, and finding himself no nearer to it than at 
first, he concluded that some loadstone rock "beneath 
the sea must have attracted the keel of his ship, and 
kept her stationary. 
The next five days were spent in a continual struggle 
with the ice. On referring to our log, I see nothing but 
a repetition of the same monotonous observations. 
“July 31st.—Wind W. by S.—Courses sundry to 
clear ice. 
“ Ice very thick. 
“ These twenty-four hours picking our way through 
ice. 
“ August 1st.-—Wind W.—courses variable—foggy 
—continually among ice these twenty-four hours.” 
And in Fitz’s diary, the discouraging state of the 
weather is still more pithily expressed:— 
“August 2d. Head wind—sailing westward—large 
hummocks of ice ahead, and on port bow, i. e. to the 
westward—hope we may be able to push through. In 
evening, ice gets thicker; we still hold on—fog comes 
on—ice getting thicker—wind freshens—we can get no 
farther—ice impassable, no room to tack—struck the 
