themselves much farther than they had ever before penetrated, and
reflecting on the advanced state of the season, seemed alarmed with
apprehensions of being beset.
On the 1st of August, the ice pressed in so fast, that there was now not
the smallest opening. The two ships were within less than two lengths of
each other, neither of them having room to turn. The ice, which had been
all flat the day before, and almost level with the water's edge, was now
in many places forced higher than the main-yard by the pieces squeezing
together. Their latitude this day at noon, by the double altitude, was
eighty degrees thirty-seven minutes.
On the 2d, it was thick, foggy, wet weather, the wind blowing fresh to
the westward; but, though the ice immediately about the ships seemed
rather looser than the day before, it hourly set in again so fast, that
there appeared no probability of getting the ships out, without a strong
east or north-east wind.
On the 3d, the weather being very fine, clear, and calm, they perceived
that the ships had been driven far to the eastward. The ice, however,
was much closer than before; and the passage by which they had come in
from the westward quite closed up, with no open water any where in
sight. At five in the morning, the pilots having expressed a wish to
get, if possible, farther out, the ships companies were set to work,
that they might cut away the ice, and warp through the small openings to
the westward. They found the ice so very deep, that they were often
obliged to saw through pieces twelve feet thick; and, after toiling in
this manner the whole day, with all their utmost efforts, had not been
able to move the ship above three hundred yards to the westward, through
the ice. They had, in the mean time, been driven, with the ice field
itself to which they were fast, to the north-east and eastward, by the
current; which had also forced the loose ice from the westward between
the islands, where it became what the Greenlandmen call packed, or one
piece thrown up above another to a considerable height, and as firm as
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