80 BOSS AND PARRY. 



satisfactory tests of those already known ; and not only 

 men of science, but the public at large, looked with deep 

 interest to the results. 



The open state of the sea greatly facilitated the pur- 

 poses of the expedition. On the 18th of April the navi- 

 gators sailed down the Thames, and by the end of the 

 month were off the Shetland Islands. On the 27th of 

 May they came in view of Cape Farewell, round which, 

 as usual, were floating numerous and lofty icebergs of 

 the most varied forms and tints. On the 14th of June 

 they reached the Whale Islands, where they were 

 informed by the governor of the Danish settlement that 

 the past winter had been uncommonly severe ; that the 

 neighboring bays and straits had been all frozen two 

 months earlier than usual ; and that some of the channels 

 northward of his station were still inaccessible, owing 

 to the ice. On the 17th of June, in the neighborhood 

 of Waygat Island, an impenetrable barrier obliged the 

 discoverers to stop their course, making themselves 

 fast to an iceberg, and having forty-five whale-ships in 

 company. Observations made ashore proved this island 

 to be misplaced on the maps by no less than five 

 degrees of longitude. On the 7th of August, in the 

 same latitude, a heavy gale sprang up, which, driving 

 the ice against the vessels, made a display of its terrible 

 power. Providentially, when instant destruction was 

 expected, the mass receded, and the ships, owing to the 

 extraordinary strength of their construction, escaped 

 without material injury. 



Proceeding along a high mountainous coast, the 

 expedition came to a tribe of Esquimaux, who, of all 

 human beings, seemed to live in a state of the deepest 

 seclusion. They had never before seen men belonging 

 to the civilized world, or to a race different from their 

 own. The first party whom the navigators approached 



