liESEAltCIIES CONTINUED. 
183 
A thick fog set in about 4 P. M., and prevented 
any farther observations on the form and position 
of the land during the day; and soon afterwards 
a strong gale arose, which obliged us for safety 
to stand off to the eastward. In the night, when 
the obscurity produced by the fog was at the 
greatest, we got entangled among a quantity of 
heavy drift-ice, which perplexed us excessively. 
Escaping from thence, we stood backward and 
forward in the “ land-water,” fearful, on the one 
hand, of running on shore, and on the other of 
coming in contact with the ice. 
Next morning (July 24th), on the wind mo¬ 
derating, we made a stretch to the northwest¬ 
ward. As we approached the land, the fog be¬ 
gan to break, and when we arrived within seven 
or eight miles of the shore, we emerged into a 
cloudless sky, and bright sunshine. An extra¬ 
ordinary quantity of ice that had formed in the 
rigging during the morning of this day, was soon 
dislodged by the warmth of the sun. It fell in 
large transparent rods, several pounds in weight, 
and cut the faces of some of the men who were 
so imprudent as to look upward. 
Being anxious to land upon a coast, on which 
no navigator (a whale-fisher or two perhaps ex¬ 
cepted) had ever set foot, I thought this a favour¬ 
able opportunity for gratifying my curiosity. This 
