An account of several late voyages and discoveries

to Spitzbergcn. 4 J .The Sea dafheth againft thefe lce~fields, which afiooech feveral fine Figures ; not that they e narnrally framed fo, but jufr as Ice flowers 0 our Glafs-windows, get all forts of figures; rrhefe are framed by the dafbing of the Sea, ke unto Mounrains, Stceples, Tables, Chappels, d aU forts of Bcalls. Thefe Jcc-fielJs are a great deal deeper undcr Jter, thcn rhey are high abovc ir, and are of paler colour tn1der Water than ahovc; the top f 1hem might be called thc Kernel and Marrow che Ice, becaufe the colour is much deeper en tbat of the other. The higheft colour is delicate Blew, of the me colcur with the Bleweft Vitriol, fome– bar more tranfparent, yet not fo clcar as that in r Country, which you may fee through, let be never fo tbick ; it is as hard as a ftone, d it is not eafily fplit or cleav'd, becaufe it fpungy, Jike unto a Pumice fionc. Among is ke che Ships fail up and down, until they me to bigger lce#fields, for the fmall ones cumber the S1.'a, that the Ships fail often a– inH: th~m and perifh, for when the winds ift the \Vaves drive againfr the lce-fields, as . ir w.is :1gainft R.ocks, and beat the Ships to 1eces. Whcn we are paffed by thefe ímaH Ice· l<ls rh.it fwim at a great diftance from one other, then we fail in between them, and aw a fm.1ll lce-field behind the ftern of our ip, that it may be tb~ fooner íl:opt, and pt fr1.;iµ f wift Sai~ing, witbout let.ting .the · ~ads·~rffl,.c,