152 GEEENLAND. 



on board. Being acquainted with the coast-line even in 

 a fog, be piloted the ship in and out of the island passages 

 AS easily as if she had been his own canoe. 



Presently the sun burst through the clouds for a while, 

 dissipating the mist, and affording us a peep of the coast 

 along which we were creeping. Occasionally we passed 

 the mouth of one of those wondrous fiords, the sight of 

 which would alone repay a visit to the north ; its deep 

 and placid waters winding inland amid every variety of 

 scenery and colouring of which these grim Arctic regions 

 are capable, or we coasted under cliffs some thousand feet 

 high with their miniature glaciers between rocks of gneiss ; 

 the stillness of the uninhabited land, the smooth clear 

 water, the ship stealing along with nothing to break the 

 solemn silence, save the plunge of the seaman's lead or 

 the flap of some wild-fowl passing us, while the awe oi 

 our silenco was intensified by the constant fear of being 

 overwhelmed by an avalanche. 



Our pilot soon left us, as he had some distance to go 

 before he reached his home. Scarcely were we left alone 

 before it began to snow ; the fog came down again from 

 off the land ; again we had to grope our way. 



Fortunately other Eskimos had been out hunting ; 

 two of whom came on board and piloted as between the 

 islands to the sheltered bay, at the head of which the 

 settlement stands, just outside which the assistant factor 

 came alongside with a boat's crew, the coxswain taking the 

 ship in to her berth, where we let go in seventeen fathoms, 

 mooring her to the rocks with bow and stern hawsers. 



