ing towards the north and east, he saw, on the 17th, a brightness in the northern horizon, which proved to be what is called the blink, reflected from ice; and in the afternoon, the ships were close to the edge of a large field of ice, in lat. 70° 41', long. 1980. Standing a little to the east and south, the Captain observed the extreme point of the American coast, now visible, to be much encumbered with ice, and thence named it Icy Cape. Perceiving that the ships were in great danger of being caught between the ice and the shore, if they kept on an easterly course, he tacked, and stood to the westward; and, on the 19th, being close to the main ice, where there were many hundreds of sea-horses (the walrus) lying in herds, huddled together like swine, our people killed several of them, and took them on board for food; and as their flesh was more relished than salt meat, quantities of this marine beef were procured on subsequent days. On the 21st, the ships approached the American coast, at a point named Cape Lisburne, in lat. 69° 5', long. 194° 42'. No harbour could be seen on this coast; the shore was generally flat, with shoal water; the land had a greenish hue.
Having advanced to the westward till saturday, Aug. 29th, Capt. Cook approached a rocky point on the coast of Asia, which he named Cape North, in lat. 68° 56', long. 180° 51': and finding himself able to weather that Cape, or to discover an opening in the ice through which the ships could make their way, in any direction, he was constrained to give up, till another season, the attempt to find a passage into the Atlantic. He therefore returned along the coast of Asia, to Behring's
