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°, nor that of America in
any parts, excepting a few leagues between the latitude of 68° and 68° 20',
that were not seen the last year. We were now obstructed by ice 3° 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°
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°, and very commonly
at 30°; 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