At two o’clock the next morning we stood again to the northward, with the wind at N.W. by W., thinking to weather the ice upon this tack; on which we stood but two hours, before we found ourselves quite imbayed, being then in latitude 55 deg. 8’, longitude 24 deg. 3’.  The wind veering more to the north, we tacked and stood to the westward under all the sail we could carry, having a fresh breeze and clear weather, which last was of short duration.  For at six o’clock it became hazy, and soon after there was thick fog; the wind veered to the N.E., freshened and brought with it snow and sleet, which froze on the rigging as it fell.  We were now enabled to get clear of the field of ice:  but at the same time we were carried in amongst the ice islands, in a manner equally dangerous, and which with much difficulty we kept clear of.

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