196 
NORTH POLE. 
the ice, and would have been obliged to pafs the winter 
in Greenland, for which they were not at all prepared. 
Belides, they hoped to find lefs ice towards the north, 
and that they might perhaps difcover fome land in the 
neighbourhood of the bay of ice in which they had been 
on the 2d of July. On the 7th, in latitude 65.21. lon¬ 
gitude 30. 30. at 120 miles from Sncefell Jokul, they fan¬ 
cied again that they faw an extended ridge of rocks, but 
it proved only a chain of ice-mountains ; at the fame 
time, towards the weft, they difcerned the ice'-blink 
nearly in the fame place where they were on the 2d of 
July. On the 8th, proceeding eafterly, they conftantly 
obferved, in a northerly direction, mountains of ice and 
the ice-blink, and palled between fome floating iflands of 
ice. Fearful that the mafles of ice ftill coming down 
from the northward might fill up the whole of the fea be¬ 
tween Greenland and Iceland, fo that it could not be na¬ 
vigated, they preferred returning to Iceland, from which 
they were then only about fixty miles,and to make another 
attempt to difcover the eaft coaft of Greenland when the 
northerly winds and the current ftiould have drifted the 
ice to the fouthward. Accordingly on the 12th of July 
they entered the port of Dyrefjord. 
All the accounts they received here confirmed them in 
the opinion that there was more ice than ufual this year, 
and that it would not float away at all that feafon, or at 
leaft till very late. Mr. Lowenorn, however, refolved to 
fet fail once more, to be convinced of the impracticability 
of penetrating through the ice. He departed on the 23d 
of July, 1786; and on the 24th, in lat. 66. 35. Ion. 29. 10. 
fell in with great mafles of ice. They perfevered in coaft- 
ing along thefe icebergs which in lat. 65. 10. Ion. 29. ap¬ 
peared to turn towards the fouth-weft, and to form a great 
bay; but, that they might not be clofed in by the ice, 
they flood to the fouthward, and then returned to lati¬ 
tude 65. 41. to the place nearly where they were on 
the 8th. They now once more tried to proceed wefterly, 
but were flopped by great mafles of ice; and as, for fe- 
veral days, they faw nothing but mafles of ice on all fides, 
they refolved to return to Iceland, where they arrived, at 
Havnefiord, on the 31ft of July. They now began to 
refit the fmall veflel under the command of lieutenant 
Egede, which was to remain during the winter in Iceland, 
in order that ftie might refume the voyage of difcovery in 
the following fpring; and Mr. Lowenorn returned to 
Denmark with his fliip. 
Accordingly on the 6th of March, 1787, Egede again 
fet fail, but fell in with nothing but immenfe mafles of 
ice, floating about in all directions; and, the fliip having 
•fprung a leak, he was obliged to feek a port of Iceland, 
where he arrived on the 23d of April. Here he’gained 
fome intelligence concerning the ice, being informed that 
the quantity during the laft two years had been greater 
than ufual. 
Egede again fet fail on the 8th of May with two final! 
veflels, one of which was under the command of lieute¬ 
nant Rotlie. On the 17th of May they came in fight of 
the land on the eaftern coaft of Greenland, being then in 
•latitude 65. 15. 58. longitude 34. 47. At the fame time 
they were furrounded by ice-iflands ; and it was remarked 
that, on that and on the following day, the current ran. 
from fouth northerly, which was the more extraordinary, 
as it had been confidered to run invariably in the con¬ 
trary direftion. But they were then in a large bay formed 
by the ice, which extended to the diftance of thirty miles 
or more from the fliore, without the fmalleft opening. 
In fhort, Egede obferves that he had never before met 
with fo much ice. He entered this bay of ice, which was 
at leaft forty miles in depth. On the 18th he approached 
the ice as clofe as was poflible, in order to get a near view 
of the coaft. He was then about thirty miles from the 
neareft land, and forty miles from the moft northern part 
of it, the latitude being 6 j. 54.18. longitude 36. 51. The 
coaft extended from north-north-eaft to fouth-fouth-weft. 
They faw nothing but rocks, very high, pointed, and in 
moft parts covered with ice and fnow, prefenting a moft 
dreary and miferable fpeftacle ; and he obferves, that, if 
this part of the coaft be inhabited, the people mult acquire 
their means of fuftenance in the interior of the country, 
by hunting and by fifliing in the rivers, for he thinks they 
could not live on the fea-coalt on account of the moun^ 
tains of ice which furround it by land and by fea. 
On the change of the current, the ice began to come 
down afrefh from the north, which forced them to leave 
the bay ; a talk they accomplilhed not without difficulty, 
and made fail for Iceland, where they arrived on the 28 th 
of May. 
On the 8th of June, Egede fet fail a third time ; but, 
meeting with nothing but mountains of ice, which it was 
impoffible to pafs, or to find any opening to admit the 
veflels towards the land beyond the ice, he put back into 
Iceland, after an unfuccefsful attempt of three weeks. 
On the 14th of July, and 25th of Auguft, he again made 
endeavours to pafs through the ice, and to pufti on to¬ 
wards the coaft of Greenland ; but, meeting continually 
with impenetrable ice, w'hich prevented him even from 
feeing the land, he was at laft forced to abandon the un¬ 
dertaking altogether, and fo return to Denmark. The 
two little veflels were fo much damaged by the ice and 
the ftorms they met with, that they were every moment 
in danger of finking. Admiral Lowenorn's 31 S. Journal. 
The long-protra6ted war, in which all the nations of 
Europe were involved foon after this period, fufpended 
the attempts at northern difcovery ; but no fooner did 
the European world begin to feel the bleffings of peace, 
than the fpirit of difcovery revived. Expeditions were 
fent forth to every quarter of the globe ; and, to the ho¬ 
nour of an individual, it ought to be mentioned, that, at 
his own coft, a Ihip was fitted out in 181 j, for the pur- 
pofe of afcertaining whether the fea, on the northern 
coaft of America, afforded n navigable paffage between the 
Pacific and Atlantic Oceans ; that individual is the Ruf¬ 
fian count Romanzoff. The veflel prepared for this un¬ 
dertaking was called the Rurick; and Lieut. Kotzebue, 
fon of the celebrated writer of that name, (of whole 
tragical death we have fo lately heard,) was appointed 
to command her. She was of fmall tonnage, not exceed¬ 
ing one hundred, and manned with twenty-two men, offi¬ 
cers included, a furgeon, and a botanift. His inftruc- 
tions were to proceed round Cape Horn, and make the 
belt of his way to the north-welt coaft of America, pafs 
Behring’s Strait, and endeavour to find fome bay or inlet 
on the American fide to lay up his veflel in fafety, while, 
with a certain number of his crew, he fliould penetrate 
the American continent by land, firft to the northward, 
to afcertain if Icy Cape be an ifland, as is fuppofed, and 
then to the eaftward, keeping the hyperborean lea on their 
left, and carrying with them light Ikin-boats, ocbaidars, to 
enable them to pafs fuch lakes orrivers as mightintervene. 
Kotzebue, having reached one of the Aleutian Iflands, 
obferved a vaft quantity of drift-wood thrown upon the 
fliore; and, among other fpecies of wood, picked up a 
log of the camphor-tree. In the midft of Behring’s Strait, 
between Eaft Cape and Cape Prince of Wales, he found 
the current fetting ftrongly to the north-eaft, at the rate, 
as he thought, of two miles and a half an-hour, which is 
at leaft twice the velocity obferved by Cook. In this 
particular place alfo the depth of the water was confider- 
ably more than the foundings mentioned in Cook’s voyage. 
Having palled the Cape Prince of Wales early in Auguft, 
without any obftruftion from ice, and as it would appear 
without feeing any, an opening was obferved in the line 
of the American coaft, in latitude about 67. 30. to 68. N. 
Into this inlet the Rurick entered. Acrofs the mouth 
was a fmall ifland, the fliores of which were covered with 
drift-wood; and among it were obferved trees of an enor¬ 
mous fize. The tide regularly ebbed and flowed through 
the paffages on each fide of the ifland. Within the en¬ 
trance, the great bay or inlet fpread out to the north and 
fouth, and had feveral coves or founds on each fliore. Its 
extent 
4' 
