162 
GREENLAND VOYAGE. 
noon and night towards the north, the sea all the 
way being tolerably open. About mid-night we 
fell in with a large field, along the edge of which 
we coasted for six or eight hours, and accomplish¬ 
ed a distance of thirty or forty miles. This field 
could not be less than thirty miles in diameter, 
and probably contained a surface of 700 or 800 
square miles in a single sheet! 
We were now in latitude 72° 33' by meridian 
observation, and longitude 19° 8' 45" W. by chro¬ 
nometer. The land was in sight from NNE. (com¬ 
pass bearing) to NW by W., which filled up the 
interval not before seen, and enabled me to deter¬ 
mine the general position and trending of the coast, 
from latitude 75° down to 70°. 
The ice, from hence, towards the land, being- 
very compact, and apparently impervious, we were 
obliged to proceed on a more easterly course: still 
meeting with no whales (with the exception of 
one that only appeared for a few moments), we 
made a stretch of about fifty miles due east, pass¬ 
ing innumerable sheets of ice, which, however, 
were so well separated in this direction, that they 
afforded us a very good passage. 
In the evening we fell in with a fleet of about 
twenty ships, that, like us, had been unsuccess¬ 
ful in their search for whales. As we had seen 
but three fish during three weeks, after leaving 
