308 
A VOYAGE TO SPITZBEEGEN. 
Steering due north, he states we made good pro¬ 
gress, our latitude by the sun's meridian altitude at 
midnight being 80° 51' 13". Soon after they observed 
that a considerable current was setting us to the east¬ 
ward just after leaving the land, so that we had made 
a N.N.E. course, distance about ten miles. 
* * * * * 
“We here perceived that the ice was close to the 
northward, but to the westward discovered some open 
water, which we reached after two or three hours’ 
paddling, and found it a wide expanse, in which we 
sailed to the northward without obstruction, a fresh 
breeze having sprung up from the S.W. The weather 
soon after became very thick, with continued snow* 
requiring great care in looking out for the ice, which 
made its appearance after two hours’ run, and gradu¬ 
ally become closer, till at length we were stopped by 
it at noon, and obliged to haul the boats upon a small 
floe-piece, our latitude by observation being 81° 12' 
51"." 
•vir -?r vc v» •5*’ 
perceptible, it would have been essentially necessary to possess the 
certain means of knowing this ; since an error of twelve hours of time 
would have carried us, when we intended to return, on a meridian 
opposite to, or 180° from, the right one. To obviate the possibility of 
this, we had some chronometers constructed by Messrs. Parkinson and 
Frodsham, of which the hour-hand made only one revolution in the 
day, the twenty-four hours being marked round the dial-plate. 
