9th of July, near what they called the Low Island; of
which Dr. Irving, who went on the party to visit it, gives in substance
the following account. On the shore were several large fir-trees lying
sixteen or eighteen feet above the level of the sea: some of these trees
were seventy feet long, and had been torn up by the roots; others cut
down by the axe, and notched for twelve feet lengths. This timber was
not in the least decayed, nor the strokes of the axe at all defaced.
There were, likewise, some pipe-staves, and wood fashioned for use. The
bench was formed of old timber, sand, and whale-bones. The island, which
is flat, was found to be about seven miles long. It was formed chiefly
of stones from eighteen to thirty inches over, many of them hexagons,
and commodiously placed for walking on. The middle of the island was
covered with moss, scurvy-grass, sorrel, and a few ranunculuses then in
flower. Two reindeer were feeding on the moss: one of these they killed,
and found the venison to be fat and of high flavour. They saw a light
grey fox; and a spotted white and black animal, somewhat larger than the
weasel, with short ears, and a long tail. The island abounds with small
snipes, similar to the English jack-snipe. The ducks were hatching their
eggs, and many wild geese feeding by the water-side.

From this pleasing scene, however, they found themselves, the next day,
very differently situated.

On the 30th of July, in the afternoon, they were among what are called
the Seven Islands, and in the ice, with no appearance of any opening for
the ships. Between eleven and twelve at night, Mr. Crane, master of the
Racehorse, was dispatched by Captain Phipps, in the four-oared boat, to
try if he could get through, and find an opening for the ship which
might afford a prospect of getting farther; with directions, if he could
reach the shore, to go up one of the mountains, in order to discover the
state of the ice to the eastward and northward. Captain Lutwidge, who
had employed a boat, conducted by his young coxswain for the same
purpose, joined Mr. Crane on shore, and they proceeded to ascend a high
mountain, from whence the prospect extended ten or twelve leagues to the
east and north-east, over one continued plain of smooth ice, bounded
only by the horizon. They also saw land stretching to the south-east,
laid down in the Dutch charts as islands: and now plainly discovered
that the main body of ice, which the ships had trac