Volume V

294 ACCOUNT OP SHIPS fHAT HAVE REACHEDbefore the Society such as I have been able to hear of since the voyagetowards the North Pole was undertaken last summer. AndrewLeekie, an intelligent seaman on board the Albion (then stationed atPlymputh), informed some of the Officers, that he had been as farnorth as 84^. when further ;questioned on this head, he said, he wason board the Reading* Captain Thomas Robinson, in 1766, and wasinformed by Captain Robinson that the ship had reached the abovementioned latitude.Having heard this account I found out CaptainRobinson, who remembered having had that conversation withLeekie, but said he was mistaken in supposing theyhad reached845-. as they were only in Saf-." Captain Robinson said, that he had at this time computed hislatitude by the run back to Hackluyt's Headland in twenty-fourhours ;from which, and other circumstances mentioned inmy presencebefore two Sea Oificers, they told me afterwards, that they hadlittle or no doubt of the accuracy of his reckoning. Mr. Robinsonlikewise remembers that the sea was then open, so that he hath nodoubt of being able to reach 83. but how much further will not pretendto say. This same Captain was, on the I5th of June, 1773,inlat. 8r. 1 6. N. by a very accurate observation with an approvedHadley's quadrant, that he made the proper allowances for refraction ;at this time seeing some whales. spout to the northward, he pursuedthem for five hours, so that he must have reached 8 if. when the seawas open to the westward and E. N. E. as far as he could distinguishfrom the mask-head, his longitude was then 8 degrees E. fromLondon. I could add some other, perhaps interesting particulars,which I have received from Captain Robinson, with regard to thepolar seas and Spitzbergen ; I will only mention, that he thinks hecould spend a winter not uncomfortably in the most northern partsweare acquainted with *, as there are three or four small settlements ofRussians in that country for the sake of the skins of quadrupeds,which are then more valuable than if the animal is taken in summer." The neit instance I shall mention, is that of Captain Cheyne,who gaveanswers to certain queries drawn up by Mr. Dalrymple,F. R. S. in relation to the polar seas, and which were communicatedlast year to the Society. Captain Cheyne states, in this paper, thathe hath been as far as lat. 8z. N- but does not whether specify byobservation or his reckoning, though from many other answers to the* See the narrative of eightsailors who wintered in Greenland, A. D. 1630."and who all returned to England in health the ensuing summer. Churchill'sVoyage, vol. iv. p. 8 it. they did not see the sun from the i^thof October tillthe 3d of February, by the last of January, however, they had day-light of eighthours, the/ wintered in latitude 77. 4. N.