that with the least topple of a sea she is washed fore and aft. Great caution is required to maintain one position, for the least inclination of the body to either side capsizes these frail vessels; and a marine of the Investigator, who attempted to sit in one, instantly turned over, and would have been in some danger of being drowned, had not his shipmates been at hand to extricate him from his critical situation.

The natives use but one paddle, which is about six feet long, having a blade at both ends, with which they propel themselves through the water very rapidly, passing with ease a whale boat pulled by five persons.

Their means of catching seals on which they principally depend for subsistence, consists of a lance made of whalebone, frequently having an iron barbed or jagged end, secured to a line neatly made from the entrails of the deer, and made fast to a seal skin bladder, which on striking the animal is passed overboard; and the Husky again looks out for its rising to the surface for breath to kill it.

The huts which these people inhabit during the winter are partly underground, with sides of turf, surrounded and covered with snow, and lined with skins of various animals. The odour proceeding from these, and the refuse of the blubber, which is never removed, is so offensive that one is glad to depart from them as soon as possible. To warm and give light to these wretched hovels they hollow out an oblong piece of bone a foot or eighteen inches in length, which is filled with oil, using as a substitute for wick a small portion of dried moss.

Much amusement was afforded us here in shooting; duck, loon, dovekys, tern, and other birds being numerous, resorting to these unfrequented shores during the summer months to breed, and migrating to a more temperate climate on the first approach of winter. We usually set out in the evening in one of the light boats, and continued away till late next morning, bringing on board a sufficient quantity of game to be able to give some to all hands.

Musquitoes were numerous at these islands, and of a large kind. Nothing could be more delightful than the weather we experienced during our stay at the Whale Islands: the air was serene and mild, and the sun shone from a cloudless sky during the day and night.

On the evening of the 30th of June the wind having sprung up fresh from the southward, and the ships having been again swung and the necessary observations for magnetic deviation completed, we wayed and made sail in company with the Enterprize, carrying the breeze to the northward of Disco, where it became calm, and continued for many days with Hare Island in sight of both ships.

On the afternoon of the 5th of July, five whalers were in sight; they were under a steep land, named by one of the early voyagers of queen Elizabeth's time "Sanderson's Hope", and consequently made us out to seaward long before they were seen from our crow's nest. They were standing towards us, and at 6h. P.M., being close to, boats were despatched to each of them, to gain whatever information they might be able to give of the state of the ice to the northward.

They all reported that at present it was impossible to get beyond Uppernavik, that they had all been detained there five weeks in expectation of its breaking up, but it had not altered the least in appearance since that time. Three of the nearest ships as they passed gave us three encouraging cheers, which were as heartily returned, and one of them the True Love, very considerately sent a boat for any letters we might be desirous of sending by her to England.

On the following night we succeeded in working up under Sanderson's Hope, where for the first time we made fast to an iceberg: but in so doing an incident occurred which might have been attended with serious consequences. On the boat reaching the berg, the men in her jumped out, and proceeded with pick axes to make a hole in the ice for the fluke of the anchor to rest in. This was done probably with too great violence, for the ice though apparently very tenacious, separated in an instant, and turned over, precipitating three men into the water, and another forcibly on to a fragment some distance from the fracture; hurting him on the elbow which was afterwards very troublesome. The boat from the violent and sudden motion was all but swamped, fortunately nothing worse resulted to the officer and man that were in her, than a thorough drenching,

The anchors used in making fast to ice are two feet or more in length by eight inches thick, constructed something after this manner.

During the summer months, the sun being continually above the horizon, the weather is mild and causes a gradual waste among the bergs, huge blocks of ice then separating from them, they become top-heavy, and fall over with a tremendous noise, not at all unlike the report of a distant cannon. Indeed, so much so, that on one occasion when away in one of the whale boats on a shooting excursion, so much did this noise resemble the discharge of a gun, that two of my companions and myself imagined it was a signal from the ship for our return, and hastened back, but on getting on board, and making enquiry we ascertained this was not the case, as no gun from either ship had been fired during our absence.

From the constant action of the water against that part of the berg which has been under water, it always presents, on its upsetting, a very regular and rounded appearance, frequently not at all unlike the bottom of a huge ship.

On the afternoon of the 6th of July, the ships were moved to Uppernavik, meaning "Summer residence," about ten miles to the northward of Sanderson's Hope. The ice presented here a closely packed mass, apparently boundless in extent, terminating only with the visible horizon, and studded with bergs of all dimensions. The bright glare reflected from the rays of an unclouded sun on this sea of ice was most trying to the sight; and refraction depicted forms and shapes in every variety of manner the fanciful imagination could invent.

The Danes have here another of those settlements established along the Greenland coast for the collection of oil, skins, &c.

The buildings forming the settlement comprise four dwelling-houses

occupied by the governor, a Roman Catholic Missionary, a carpenter, and a person sent here last year from Denmark to superintend the working of some black lead pits, which have been discovered in the neighbourhood. These, however, owing to the machinery with which they were to have been started, becoming injured on the voyage from Europe, have not yet been commenced.

While at Uppernavik I paid a visit with some others to the governor, as he is styled, for the purpose of obtaining from his store a few of the articles with which it is stocked: such as fancy Dutch pipes, packets of tobacco, lucifer matches, &c. He told us that he was born at Lievely, in Disco, the principal of the eight Danish settlements on the coast, of which this is the farthest north.

He is married to a woman of native origin by a European father; they have four fine good looking children; and the interior of their house had a degree of cleanliness and comfort about it that I was unprepared to see on the shores of the Arctic regions.

The good wife bustled herself about to make some tea for us, giving us with it some excellent bread and butter, while her husband, who speaks sufficient English to make himself intelligible, kindly responded to our many enquiries.

He explained to us that the preceding winter had been excessively cold, enabling him to drive in his sledge over eighty miles of ice to seaward; but that the two former seasons had been comparatively mild, and no travelling ice then existed near Uppernavik,

He also mentioned among other things, that the natives here, with four exceptions, professed Christianity, and those were three old men and a woman, who were unwilling to depart from the superstitous notions they had all their lives entertained respecting the moon; which before their acquaintence with Europeans all of them had venerated.

The priest I did not see, but our friend represented him to be an excellent man! and his voluntary residence among these people for the sole purpose of doing good, confirms the favorable testimony given of him: he had established a school, and had succeeded in teaching a few of them to write.

There are many huts here, and from the numerous packs of yelping dogs, which are employed in sledging and much prized, I should suppose this tribe of Esquimaux was large. Their inducement in residing at Uppernavik being for the disposal of skins and oil to the Danes.

A native here sold us some venison in exchange for a small quantity of biscuit; they run the deer down with their dogs, and report them to be numerous, among the hills forty miles distant. Its flavour was uncommonly good and much esteemed.

At Uppernavik and also at the Whale Islands were the graves of several English sailors, who had died whilst serving on board whalers; the head stone recording their death being the only evidence of the place ever before having been visited by our countrymen.

On the afternoon of the 13th a Danish brig arrived from Denmark: as soon as she had anchored the captain of her went on board the Enterprize, and gave some imperfect intelligence of a war existing on the

continent of Europe, but for want of an interpreter the information was ill understood. We had for many days been engaged in writing letters to be left with the governor to transmit to Europe: and the berg to which we were attached breaking up and rolling, giving every symptom of overturning hastened our departure, and that same evening our final adieus were made up and intrusted to the safe keeping of the commander of the brig. The ships getting under way as soon as the boat returned from her.

On the 20th we stood inshore to the eastward among numerous islets, forty-five miles within the boundary line of west coast of Greenland as laid down in the present charts. An immense glacier was here observed extending completely along the imaginary coast line, on a level with the steep and elevated land. In the evening we brought up alongside the edge of a very extensive but irregular floe, apparently connected with the glacier which was distant about five miles.

The evening was cloudy but perfectly still, with a little small rain; but in the middle watch, which was uncommonly thick, a strong gale suddenly sprang up with the change of tide, driving the ice furiously out at the opening we came in by. At one time the ships were in danger of getting nipped: we escaped most fortunately with only a few heavy knocks; but the Enterprize had two of her boats injured, one of the quarter boats-a cutter was completely squeezed together.

We whirled about in the tide, which was very rapid, and were almost unmanageable for some hours, endeavouring to avoid the bergs which were enormous; and it was not till slack water that the ships were again secured to bergs aground.

The morning showed a complete transformation in the appearance of the place; numbers of the bergs we had seen the evening before having been swept to sea with the current, and now exposing a complete view of the glacier. Its magnitude surprised us all, it appeared to be formed between high unconnected land as far as could be seen; making it seem, as has been supposed that, Greenland is composed of a vast number of islands.

In this way the bergs are formed, for the glacier increasing in size with each winter, many overhanging projections are formed, the enormous weight of which separating from the "factory" takes with it in its disjunction a considerable body; the whole falling over with terrific roar into the sea. The position of Glacier harbour, as it was named, was lat. 73° 42′ 0′′ N., long. 55° 20′ 0′′ W.

For many days the ice completely obstructed our progress, and we kept dodging about a remarkable bold headland, on the summit of which stands a perpendicular rock, called the "Devil's Thumb," from the extreme difficulty ships have ever experienced in getting forward when in its vicinity.

Many have been the attempts made it is said by the crews of whaling vessels to gain the summit of this singular rock, which stands erect, of a considerable height, and entirely apart on a steep projection overlooking the sea; but from the formation of the sides of the cliff on which it stands all their efforts have been unsuccessful.

On one occasion we took the ice, and forged ahead a considerable distance; but as we frequently observed when among the ice, notwithstanding we entered with a strong breeze, before we had proceeded two miles from open water the wind fell, it became perfectly calm, and the exertions of all hands were required to clear a channel and warp ahead. This happened in the present instance, but the Investigator was got into clear water again late that same night; the Enterprize however, having taken the pack in a different lead, remained closely beset the whole of the next day, when the ice partially separated, and she ran back round the edge of it, when we rejoined her. This was the more provoking, as a fine southerly breeze prevailed at the time, and we could have made good progress, had not our consort been "in a fix."

In this navigation much attention is required in taking advantage of every change and opening that may appear in the ice. It continually happens owing to very light airs and thick fogs, which are most frequent in the summer, that for days it is impossible to make any advance, in consequence of the strong current setting out of Lancaster Sound, and down Baffin Bay; when the exertions of the crew are required in the laborious occupation of towing, which with such heavy ships is at the best but slow progress.

The Lord Gambier, whaler, joined us on the 21st of July, and remained in company some days, but parted near the "Three Islands of Baffin" in a stiff breeze; being afraid, we concluded, of the ice to the northward which appeared very heavy. The crew of the Gambier captured a bear while with us, being the third they had killed within a few days. This was the last ship we saw.

On the afternoon of the 5th of August Melville's monument, a remarkable peak so named by Sir John Ross in 1818, was distinctly observed: and the next day by hard towing we made fast to a berg off Browns Islands, where we remained for some days, the wind during part of the time blowing hard from the north west and driving a deal of hummocky ice completely around us.

Melville Bay is considered one of the most dangerous localities of Baffin Bay or Davis Strait for a ship to get beset in; and more whaling vessels have been crushed and wrecked here, than in any other part of these seas, from the circumstance of the ice in clearing out of Barrow Strait being driven across by the north-westerly winds, and pressed in by the quantity of water which makes off Lancaster's Sound, and so well known by the name of the "West Waters."

On the 8th, near midnight, a bear was seen on a floe, about a quarter of a mile astern of the Investigator. It was some time before the officer of the watch would permit a boat to be lowered to go in chase; but a number of the men were on deck and anxious to be after him.

Two of the whale boats were then immediately sent in pursuit of Mr. Bruin, but the fellow scampered over the ice at a most surprising rate, and would certainly have escaped, had he not unwisely taken to the water; when the boat farthest in advance soon came upon him, and notwithstanding he dived, and was for a few minutes lost to sight, yet he was eventually killed; having been first pierced with a lance through the