Dangerous as it is to sail among these floating rocks (if I may be allowed to call them so) in a thick fog, this, however, is preferable to being entangled with immense fields of ice under the same circumstances.  The great danger to be apprehended in this latter case, is the getting fast in the ice; a situation which would be exceedingly alarming.  I had two men on board that had been in the Greenland trade; the one of them in a ship that lay nine weeks, and the other in one that lay six weeks, fast in this kind of ice, which they called packed ice.  What they called field ice is thicker; and the whole field, be it ever so large, consists of one piece.  Whereas this which I call field-ice, from its immense extent, consists of many pieces of various sizes, both in thickness and surface, from thirty or forty feet square to three or four, packed close together, and in places heaped one upon another.  This, I am of opinion, would be found too hard for a ship’s side, that is not properly armed against it.  How long it may have lain, or will lie here, is a point not easily determined.  Such ice is found in the Greenland seas all the summer long; and I think it cannot be colder there in the summer, than it is here.  Be this as it may, we certainly had no thaw; on the contrary, the mercury in Fahrenheit’s thermometer kept generally below the freezing point, although it was the middle of summer.

It is a general opinion, that the ice I have been speaking of, is formed in bays and rivers.  Under this supposition we were led to believe that land was not far distant; and that it even lay to the southward behind the ice, which alone hindered us from approaching to it.  Therefore, as we had now sailed above thirty leagues along the edge of the ice, without finding a passage to the south, I determined to run thirty or forty leagues to the east, afterwards endeavour to get to the southward, and, if I met with no land, or other impediment, to get behind the ice, and put the matter out of all manner of dispute.  With this view, we kept standing to the N.W., with the wind at N.E. and N., thick foggy weather, with sleet and snow, till six in the evening, when the wind veered to N.W., and we tacked and stood to the eastward, meeting with many islands of ice of different magnitudes, and some loose pieces:  The thermometer from 30 to 34; weather very hazy, with sleet and snow, and more sensibly colder than the thermometer seemed to point out, insomuch that the whole crew complained.  In order to enable them to support this weather the better, I caused the sleeves of their jackets (which were so short as to expose their arms) to be lengthened with baize; and had a cap made for each man of the same stuff, together with canvas; which proved of great service to them.

Some of our people appearing to have symptoms of the scurvy, the surgeons began to give them fresh wort every day, made from the malt we had on board for that purpose.  One man in particular was highly scorbutic; and yet he had been taking the rob of lemon and orange for some time, without being benefited thereby.  On the other hand, Captain Furneaux told me, that he had two men, who, though far gone in this disease, were now in a manner entirely cured by it.[6]