the Asiatic side, between the latitude 69 deg. and 70 deg., frequently encountering in this tract large and extensive fields of ice; and though, by reason, of the fogs and thickness of the weather, we were not able absolutely and entirely to trace a connected line of it across, yet we were sure to meet with it before we reached the latitude of 70 deg., whenever we attempted to stand to the northward.  On the 26th of August, in latitude 69-3/4 deg., and longitude 184 deg., we were obstructed by it in such quantities, as made it impossible for us to pass either to the north or west, and obliged us to run along the edge of it to the S.S.W., till we saw land, which we afterward found to be the coast of Asia.  With the season thus far advanced, the weather setting in with snow and sleet, and other signs of approaching winter, we abandoned our enterprize for that time.

In this second attempt we could do little more than confirm the observations we had made in the first; for we were never able to approach the continent of Asia higher than the latitude 67 deg., nor that of America in any parts, excepting a few leagues between the latitude of 68 deg. and 68 deg. 20’, that were not seen the last year.  We were now obstructed by ice 3 deg. lower, and our endeavours to push farther to the northward were principally confined to the mid-space between the two coasts.  We penetrated near 3 deg. farther on the American side than on the Asiatic, meeting with the ice both years sooner, and in greater quantities on the latter coast.  As we advanced N., we still found the ice more compact and solid; yet, as in our different traverses from side to side, we passed over spaces which had, before been covered with it, we conjectured that most of what we saw was moveable.  Its height, on a medium, we took to be from eight to ten feet, and that of the highest to have been sixteen or eighteen.  We again tried the currents twice, and found them unequal, but never to exceed one mile an hour.  By comparing the reckoning with the observations, we also found the current to set different ways, yet more from the S.W. than any other quarter; but whatever their direction might be, their effect was so trifling, that no conclusions respecting the existence of any passage to the northward could be drawn from them.  We found the month of July to be infinitely colder than that of August.  The thermometer in July was once at 28 deg., and very commonly at 30 deg.; whereas the last year, in August, it was very rare to have it so low as the freezing point.  In both seasons we had some high winds, all of which came from the S.W.  We were subject to fogs whenever the wind was moderate, from whatever quarter, but they attended southerly winds more constantly than contrary ones.[33]