We coasted for some distance along the shore of
this new continent, which formed an ice barrier rising in a long
perpendicular line from the sea, making a landing impossible.
When the repairs to our ship had been effected, we hauled our wind, and
stood away northward, when we found ourselves surrounded by masses of
floating ice. In no record of any voyage that Hartog or I knew of is
any mention made of this phenomenon, so we concluded we were the first
to see it. The farther we went the more numerous became the icebergs,
and the more difficult the navigation owing to fogs and mists. The
whole surface of the water as far as the eye could reach was covered by
dense masses of ice, and had not the breeze freshened so that we were
able to avoid the ice pack, we might never have made our way to the
open sea. Some of the icebergs were beautifully formed, and the
countless prisms of which they were composed glowed in the sun's rays
with the delicate colour of the rainbow.
Next day the wind had fallen to a calm, and we rode upon a sea of
glass. We had left the pack ice, but before us stretched an island of
such extent that the end of it could not be seen.
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