This, to be sure, was no place to keep the fourth
of July. To keep ourselves warm, and the ship out of the ice, was as
much as we could do. Yet no one forgot the day; and many were the
wishes, and conjectures, and comparisons, both serious and
ludicrous, which were made among all hands. The sun shone bright as
long as it was up, only that a scud of black clouds was ever and
anon driving across it. At noon we were in lat. 54 deg. 27' S.,and
long. 85 deg. 5' W., having made a good deal of easting, but having
lost in our latitude by the heading of the wind. Between daylight and
dark- that is, between nine o'clock and three- we saw thirty-four ice
islands, of various sizes; some no bigger than the hull of our vessel,
and others apparently nearly as large as the one that we first saw;
though, as we went on, the islands became smaller and more numerous;
and, at sundown of this day, a man at the mast-head saw large fields
of floating ice called "field-ice" at the south-east. This kind of ice
is much more dangerous than the large islands, for those can be seen
at a distance, and kept away from; but the field-ice, floating in
great quantities, and covering the ocean for miles and miles, in
pieces of every size-large, flat, and broken cakes, with here and
there an island rising twenty and thirty feet, and as large as the
ship's hull;- this, it is very difficult to sheer clear of.
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