December. perifhing by flow degrees, through the inclemencies of
weather and through famine. Having been on board,
fome time, they fired a gun, and being within hail of the
Refolution, returned on board of that Hoop, to their own
damp beds and mouldering cabins, upon which they now
fet a double value, after fo perilous an expedition. The
rifks to- which the voyager is expofed at fea are very numerous,
and danger often arifes where it is leaft expedted.
Neither can we trace the care of Providence more evidently
in ftorms among hidden rocks and fhoals, and where
water or fire threaten d'eftruction, than in thefe little cir-
cumftances, which the traveller and the reader are both
too apt to forget or pafs lightly over, i f they come to a.
favourable ilTue.
l&idayiS; The quantity of impenetrable ice to the fouth did not
permit us to advance towards that quarter; therefore, after
feveral fruitlefs attempts, we flood on to the eaftward,.
along it, frequently, making way through great fpots covered
with broken- ice, which anfwered the defcription of
what the northern navigators call packed ice. Heavy haiL
fhowers and frequent falls of fnow continually obfcured:
the air, and only gave us the reviving fight of the fun
during fhort intervals. Large iflands of ice were hourly
feen in all diredtions around the Hoops, fo that they were
now become as familiar to us as the clouds and the fea
their.
their frequency however ftill led to new obfervations, which „
our long acquaintance with them ferved to confirm. We
were certain of meeting with ice in any quarter where we
perceived a ftrong reflexion of white on the fkirts of the
fky near the horizon. However the ice is not always
entirely white, but often tinged, efpecially near the fur-
face of the fea, with a moil beautiful fapphirine or rather
berylline blue, evidently reflected from the water; this
blue colour fometimes appeared twenty or thirty feet above-
the furface, and was there probably owing to fome particles
of fea-water which had been dafhed againft the mafs
in tempeftuous weather, and had penetrated into its in-
terftices. We could likewife frequently obferve in> great
iflands of ice, different fhades or caffs .,-of whit#, lying;
above each other in ftrata of fix'inches or one foot high.
This appearance feems to confirm the opinion concerning:
the farther encreafe' and accumulation of fuch huge
mafles by heavy falls of fnow at different intervals. For
fnow being of various kinds, fmall grained, large grained,
in light feathery locks, &c. the various degrees of its com-
padtnefs account for the different colours of the ftrata.
We did not lofe fight of our deftination to explore the TiieHay.aji,
fouthern frigid zone, and- no fooner perceived the. fea more
©pen than before, than we flood once more to rhe fouth-
ward; We made' but fmall advances at firft, the wind
being very faint, and almoft falling calm in the morning
on»
II