I continued to stand to the westward, till five in the afternoon, when we were in a manner embayed by the ice, which appeared high, and very close in the N.W. and N.E. quarters, with a great deal of loose ice about the edge of the main field.  At this time we had baffling light winds, but it soon fixed at S., and increased to a fresh gale, with showers of rain.  We got the tack aboard, and stretched to the eastward, this being the only direction in which the sea was clear of ice.

At four in the morning of the 27th, we tacked and stood to the W., and, at seven in the evening, we were close in with the edge of the ice, which lay E.N.E., and W.S.W., as far each way as the eye could reach.  Having but little wind, I went with the boats to examine the state of the ice.  I found it consisting of loose pieces, of various extent, and so close together, that I could hardly enter the outer edge with a boat; and it was as impossible for the ships to enter it, as if it had been so many rocks.  I took particular notice, that it was all pure transparent ice, except the upper surface, which was a little porous.  It appeared to be entirely composed of frozen snow, and to have been all formed at sea.  For setting aside the improbability, or rather impossibility, of such huge masses floating out of rivers, in which there is hardly water for a boat, none of the productions of the land were found incorporated, or fixed in it, which must have unavoidably been the case, had it been formed in rivers, either great or small.  The pieces of ice that formed the outer edge of the field, were from forty or fifty yards in extent, to four or five; and I judged, that the larger pieces reached thirty feet, or more, under the surface of the water.  It also appeared to me very improbable, that this ice could have been the production of the preceding winter alone.  I should suppose it rather to have been the production of a great many winters.  Nor was it less improbable, according to my judgment, that the little that remained of the summer could destroy the tenth part of what now subsisted of this mass, for the sun had already exerted upon it the full influence of his rays.  Indeed I am of opinion, that the sun contributes very little toward reducing these great masses.  For although that luminary is a considerable while above the horizon, it seldom shines out for more than a few hours at a time, and often is not seen for several days in succession.  It is the wind, or rather the waves raised by the wind, that brings down the bulk of these enormous masses, by grinding one piece against another, and by undermining and washing away those parts that lie exposed to the surge of the sea.  This was evident, from our observing, that the upper surface of many pieces had been partly washed away, while the base or under part remained firm for several fathoms round that which appeared above water, exactly like a shoal round an elevated rock.  We measured the depth of water upon one, and found it to be fifteen feet,