SHIP ENCLOSED BY ICE. 
99 
tense, and often painful and injurious to the 
eyes. > ^ ' 
The land being now only ten or fifteen 
leagues from us, and fortunately less disfigured 
than usual, by refraction, I obtained a good sketch 
of its appearance, and another set of observations 
on its bearings. As no advance could possibly 
be made towards the west, nor indeed in any di¬ 
rection, our retreat having been cut off by the 
closing of the ice in our rear, these occupations 
served to amuse my mind, and fill up the hours 
of tedious detention and inactivity. 
In the night we saw a whale, the first that had 
appeared near us for a-week. It only showed itself 
once, and then passed out of sight. 
The two following days we continued in the 
same basin of water, cruising from end to end, 
and penetrating almost every crack towards the 
north-west, that would admit the ship a passage; 
but no progress, I found, could be made, in the 
destination I had assumed, while the ice continued 
in the compact state it was then in. Our nearest 
approach to the land was within about ten leagues; 
beyond that point it was impossible to advance. 
The ice between us and the coast was a heavy body 
of fields and floes; and these were so compactly con¬ 
gregated, that there was seldom the smallest speck 
of water to be seen among them. In all direc- 
