At six in the morning of the 20th, a thick fog coming on, we lost sight of the ice for two hours; but the weather clearing, we saw the main body again to the S.S.E., when we hauled our wind, which was easterly, toward it, in the expectation of making the American coast to the S.E., and which we effected at half past ten. At noon, the latitude, by account, was 69° 33', and longitude 194° 53', and the depth of water nineteen fathoms. The land extended from S. by E. to S.S.W. 1/2 W., distant eight or ten leagues, being the same we had seen last year; but it was now much more covered with snow than at that time, and to all appearance the ice adhered to the shore. We continued in the afternoon sailing through a sea of loose ice, and standing toward the land, as near as the wind, which was E.S.E., would admit. At eight the wind lessening, there came on a thick fog, and on perceiving a rippling in the water, we tried the current, which we found to set to the E.N.E., at the rate of a mile an hour, and therefore determined to steer during the night before the wind, in order to stem it, and to oppose the large fragments of loose ice that were setting us on toward the land. The depth of the water at midnight was twenty fathoms.
At eight in the morning of the 21st, the wind freshening, and the fog clearing away, we saw the American coast to the S.E., at the distance of eight or ten leagues, and hauled in for it; but were stopped again by the ice, and obliged to bear away to the westward, along the edge of it. At noon, the latitude, by account, was 69° 34', and longitude 193°, and the depth of water twenty-four fathoms.
Thus a connected solid field of ice, rendering every effort we could make to a nearer approach to the land fruitless, and joining as we judged to it, we took a last farewell of a N.E passage to Old England. I shall beg leave to give, in Captain Clerke's own words, the reasons of this his final determination, as well as of his future plans; and this the rather, as it is the last transaction his health permitted him to write down.
"It is now impossible to proceed the least farther to the northward upon this coast (America); and it is equally as improbable that this amazing mass of ice should be dissolved by the few remaining summer-weeks which will terminate this season; but it will continue, it is to be believed, as it now is, an insurmountable barrier to every attempt we can possibly make. I therefore think it the best step that can be taken, for the good of the service, to trace the sea over to the Asiatic coast, and to try if I can find any opening, that will admit me farther north; if not, to see what more is to be done upon that coast; where I hope, yet cannot much flatter myself, to meet with better success; for the sea is now so choaked with ice, that a passage, I fear, is totally out of the question."