32 WHALEFISH ISLANDS. \May, 



calculated to be of use. We were therefore compelled 

 to grope our way, aided by our dead reckoning. 



To the seaman seeking Whalefish Islands nothing 

 can be more deceitful than the first sight of the group, 

 when distant about ten miles, and more particularly if 

 the wind should be light and the sea very smooth, when 

 probably it would prove glassy calm at the islands. They 

 would then appear merely like a scattered reef on the 

 surface of the ocean ; but the mystery is easily dispelled. 

 If they display a wide extent, you are to the south-west ; 

 and if you bring them to bear nearly true north, you 

 must be in the fair way for the entrance, which is by 

 the south-east end of the southern island. E.N.E. by 

 compass, they show in the centre of Disco and as one 

 island. 



The two main islands are high, about six hundred 

 feet, and will exhibit a deep gap between them. It is 

 in this gap, about half a cable wide, that vessels anchor. 

 The Danish Establishment is on the southern island, 

 termed Kron-Prins Island. If the breeze be steady, shave 

 it on the east, as a rock lies off about a cable's length 

 north-north-east true, and run for the gap until Boat 

 Isle is seen midway in the channel ; drop anchor in the 

 mouth, and veer to secure to either or both shores. Five 

 of Her Majesty's ships were safely berthed well within 

 the mouth. 



The latitude of Boat Island was determined to be 

 latitude 68 58' 42" N., longitude 53 13' W., variation 

 70 46' 39" W. 



In Captain Mangles' account I notice that Sir John 

 Franklin was much in the same dilemma as ourselves ; 



