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could not be attained; and were the regress not aided by natural facilities, every attempt to prosecute the whale-fishery with effect would be attended with imminent danger; I may say, with almost certain destruction.

On the Properties, peculiar Movements, and Drifting of the Ice.

1. The ice always has a tendency to separate during calms. This property holds both with regard to field and drift ice, and seems to arise from a repelling tendency between the individual masses. Hence it is, that when the heavy ice is released from its confinement by the dissolution of the intruding bay ice, a calm generally spreads its pieces abroad, and allows a free passage for ships, which before could not be urged forward with all the assistance to be derived from the wind, combined with every effort of art. From the same cause it is, that ice, which with strong winds is formed into compact streams or patches, and allows a safe and commodious passage amidst these large aggregations, -on the occurrence of one or two days of calm weather, will be disseminated into every opening, and seem to fill every space, allowing only a troublesome and sinuous navigation. In this case, the dispersion is so general that scarcely any two pieces can be said to touch each other.

Openings in packs, and amidst fields, frequently break out or disappear without any apparent cause. It is often of importance to the fisher to determine whether any space be in the course of di

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of opening.

2. The amazing changes which take place in the most compact ice, are often unaccountable. They astonish even those who are accustomed to their occurrence. Thus, ships immovably fixed with regard to the ice, have been known to perform a complete revolution in a few hours; and two ships beset a few furlongs apart, within the most compact pack, have sometimes been separated to the distance of several leagues within the space of two or three days, notwithstanding the apparent continuity of the pack remaining unbroken!

On the 7th of May 1798, the Dundee of London, (then commanded by my father,) while forcing to the northward on the most eligible course, was suddenly stopped by a shift of wind, and enveloped by the ice at a very short distance from the land. The Volunteer of Whitby, and three other ships, were likewise arrested a little way from the Dundee. During the day, three Russian convicts visited them, coming over the ice from the nearest shore; but as none of the crew could speak their language, they were prevented from deriving any information from them.

The next day, a heavy gale of wind prevailed from the northwest; the frost was intense, and much snow fell. The pressure of

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he ice was very severe; insomuch, that their iron-tiller was broken, the ship lifted above two feet, and forced within a mile and a half of the land. All the bay ice was squeezed upon the top of the heavy ice, and the whole was rendered so compact, that they could not find a hole sufficient to admit a lead, for the purpose of ascertaining the depth of the water. They got their provisions upon deck, considering the ship in great danger.

On the 9th, they were in latitude 77° 38′ N. The intensity of the pressure was not diminished. The Volunteer lay beset three miles off, under a like dangerous pressure.

In my Father's Journal of the 12th, appear the following remarks: "N. B.-I cannot, from the top-gallant-mast-head, see over the flat of ice to the northeast, into which the ship is frozen; and yet in fifty hours it has revolved from the south-south west, westerly to north, and carried the ship with a semi-circular motion 15 or 20 leagues. On the 10th instant we were within 14 miles of the land, whereas our distance is now 10 leagues, and our advance to the northward even greater. The Volunteer has drifted out of sight in the south-west quarter."

On the 15th, after labouring eight and forty hours without rest, they escaped into a place of safety.

3. When speaking of the formation of fields, I had occasion to remark, that the polar ice has a constant tendency to drift to the south-westward; with regard to which, it may be observed, that

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From a narrative of the loss of several of the Dutch Greenland fleet in the year 1777, we learn that the ship Wilhelmina was moored to a field of ice on the 22d of June, in the usual fishingstation, along with a large fleet of other whalers. On the 25th, the Wilhelmina was closely beset. The crew were obliged to work incessantly for eight days, in sawing a dock in the field, wherein the ship was at that time preserved.

On the 25th of July, the ice slacked, and the ship was towed to the eastward, during four days laborious rowing with the boats. At the extremity of the opening, they joined four ships, and all of them were soon again beset by the ice. Shortly afterwards, they were drifted within sight of the coast of Old Greenland, in about 7540 of north latitude. On the 15th of August, nine sail were collected together; and about the 20th, after sustaining a dreadful storm, and an immense pressure of the ice, which accumulated around them twenty or thirty feet high,-two of the ships were wrecked. Two more were wrecked four or five days afterwards, together with two others at a dis

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tance from them. On the 24th, Iceland was in sight; some of the ice was in motion, and two ships seemed to escape. Another was lost on the 7th of September; and, on the 13th, the Wilhelmina was crushed to pieces by the fall of an enormous mass of ice, which was so unexpected, that those of the crew who were in bed, had scarcely time to escape on the ice, half naked as they were.

One ship now alone remained, to which the crews of four, and the surviving part of the crew of a fifth, (that was wrecked on the 30th of September), repaired. In the beginning of October, they had drifted to the latitude of 64°; and, on the 11th, the last ship was overwhelmed by the ice and sunk. Thus, between three and four hundred men were driven to the ice, and exposed to the inclemency of the weather, almost destitute of food and raiment.

On the 30th of October, the miserable sufferers divided: The greater part betook themselves to the Continent, whilst the rest remained on a field of ice, until they drifted near to Staten Hook, and then followed the example of their comrades. About 140 of the men reached the Danish settlements on the West Coast of Greenland; the remainder, consisting of about 200, perished.

Thus, it appears, that the ship which survived to the latest period, drifted with the ice in a southwesterly direction from the usual fishing-stations, (probably in 78° to 80° of north latitude), to the latitude of about 62°; at the same time, from longitude a few degrees easterly, to that of more than 30° west; and, that the ice

still continued to advance along the land to the southward.

In the year 1803, the Henrietta of Whitby, while prosecuting the whale-fishery, was, by a southerly storm, entangled among the ice in the latitude of 80° north, and longitude of 6′ cast; and afterwards accompanied it in its drift to the south-westward, at the daily rate of from ten to fifteen miles. They saw several bears; and at one time they conceived that the land of West Greenland was within sight. The ice pressed dreadfully around them, and accumulated in amazing heaps; but providentially, the ship always escaped the heaviest crushes. After a state of complete inertion during seven weeks, the ice began to slack; when, with vigilant and laborious measures, they were enabled to make their escape, in latitude about 73 north, and longitude 9°

west.

When treating of the pressure of fields, I slightly alluded to a circumstance which occurred within my own observation on my last voyage to Greenland (1814). While it affords a suitable illustration of the tremendous effects produced by the collision of those prodigious sheets of ice, it is no less applicable to the subject in hand; I shall therefore give a sketch of the whole occurrence.

In the beginning of May, ve entered, with the ship Esk of Whitby, a spacious opening of the ice, to a distance of ten or twelve leagues from the exterior, wherein we were tempted to stay, from the appearance of a great number of whales. On the 9th of May, the weather calmed, the frost was severe, and the ship was soon

fixed in young ice. At the same time, the external sheets of ice on the north-east wheeled to the south, formed a junction with the ice south-east from us, and completely enclosed us. Until the 16th, we lay immoveable; a break of the bay ice then appeared about half a-mile from us, to attain which, we laboured with energy, and in eight hours had made a passage for the ship. On the 18th, we pursued the same opening to its eastern extremity, and endeavoured, but without success, to force through a narrow neck of ice, into another opening leading further in the same direction. On the 20th, in accomplishing this object, we endured a heavy pressure of the bay ice, which shook the ship in an alarming manner. The next day we made a small advance; and on the 22d, after a fatiguing effort in passing through the midst of an aggregation of floes against the wind, we obtained a channel which led us several miles to the south-eastward. On the 23d, we lay at rest together with four other ships. The day following, having sawn a place for the ship in a thin floe, we forced forward between two large masses, where bay ice unconsolidated had been compressed, until it had become 10 or 12 feet thick. We were assisted by about a hundred men from the accompanying ships, which followed close in our rear; and after applying all our mechanical powers during eight or nine hours, we passed the strait of about a furlong in length, and immediately the ice collapsed and rivetted the ships of our companions to the spot. As they declined our proffered assistance, (which indeed, at

this time, would have been quite unavailing), we determined to improve the advantage we had acquired, by proceeding to the utmost limits of the opening. Accordingly, we advanced, on various winding courses, amidst bay ice and fields, in narrow obscure passages, a distance of several miles. We then discovered a continuation of the navigation, which, although contracted to the space of a few yards, in a channel extending near a mile, between two immense sheets of ice, we determined to attempt to pass on. The prospect was indeed appalling; but, perceiving indications of the enlargement of the passage, rather than the contrary, we advanced under a press of sail, driving aside some disengaged lumps of ice that opposed us, and shortly accomplished our wishes in safety. Here, an enlivening prospect presented itself: to the extreme limits of the horizon, no interruption was visible. We made a predetermined signal to the ships we had left, indicative of our views. In two hours, however, our sanguine expectations of an immediate release, received a check, for we then met with fields in the act of collapsing and completely barring our progress. As the distance across was scarcely a mile, and the sea to appearance clear beyond it, the interruption was most tantalizing. We waited at the point of union, in the hope of the separation of the two fields; and on the morning of the 26th of May, our anxiety was happily relieved by the wished-for division of the ice. The ship, propelled by a brisk wind, darted through the strait, and entered a sea,

which we considered the termination of our difficulties. After steering three hours to the southeastward, as directed by the northern ice, we were concerned to discover, that our conclusions had been premature. An immense pack opened on our view, stretching directly across our track. There was no alternative, but forcing through it: we therefore pushed forward into the least connected part. By availing ourselves of every advantage in sailing, where sailing was practicable, and boring or drifting, where the pieces of ice were too compact, we at length reached the leeward part of a narrow channel, in which we had to ply a considerable distance against the wind. In performing this, the wind, which had hitherto blown a brisk breeze from the north, was increased to a strong gale: the ship was placed in such a critical situation, that we could not for above an hour accomplish any reduction of the sails, and she was thus alarmingly oppressed: while I was personally engaged performing the duty of a pilot from the top-mast-head, the agitation and bending of the mast was so uncommon, that I was seriously alarmed for its stability. At length we were enabled to reef our sails, and for a while proceeded with less danger. We continued to manœuvre among the ice, according as its separation was most considerable. Our direction was now east, then north for several hours, then easterly 10 or 15 miles ;-when, after 18 hours of the most difficult, and occasionally hazardous sailing, in which the ship received some hard blows from the ice; after pursuing a

devious course nearly ninety miles, and accomplishing a distance on a direct north-east course of about forty miles; we found ourselves at the very margin of the sea, separated only by a narrow sea stream. The waves were so great without, and the wind so violent, that we dared not to hazard an attempt to force through this remaining obstacle. After waiting about thirty hours, on the morning of the 28th of May the weather cleared, and the wind abated. The sea stream, which, the preceding day, did not exceed two hundred yards in breadth, was generally augmented to upwards of a mile broad. One place alone was visible, where the breadth was less considerable; to that we directed our course, forced the ship into it, and by prompt and vigorous exertions were enabled to surmount every difficulty, and accomplish our final escape into the free ocean.

I have been thus minute in the relation of the progress of our extrication from an alarming, though not very uncommon, state of besetment, both for the purpose of giving a faint idea of the difficulties and dangers which those engaged in the whale-fishery have occasionally to encounter, and also more particularly to shew the extraordinary manner in which ships are imperceptibly immured amidst the ice, by the regularity of its drift to the south-westward.

From this narrative it will appear, that, notwithstanding we only penetrated 25 or 30 miles on our ingress, and among ice most widely disposed; yet, before our regress was accomplished, we had passed on a direct course a dis

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