BAFFIN ON GLACIERS 17 



to the north-east, reached Wijde Bay, where at the 

 point of the beach at the entrance he " set up a cross 

 and nailed a sixpence thereon with the king's arms," 

 probably the neatest property mark in history. Thence 

 he went on to the entrance to Hinlopen Strait, complet- 

 ing the journey along the north of the main island. It 

 was on this voyage that he endeavoured to find his 

 longitudes by observing the moon, for Baffin was the 

 first who attempted to take a lunar at sea. 



Year by year the fishery increased, and the whale 

 fishers multiplied as if the sea were a goldfield, the 

 monopoly being respected until 1618, when the Dutch, 

 who had all along prospered more than the rest, proved 

 too strong for the English, and a compromise was 

 arrived at by which the different harbours were 

 allotted to the different nations for the processes 

 necessary in the preparation of the whale products for 

 shipment. But it was purely a summer industry. 

 There was no colony, and it did not seem as though 

 there would be one, for no man willing to winter in 

 the place could be found. Vainly were rewards offered 

 to those who would venture. In the north was the 

 ever-present barrier of ice, more distant some years 

 than others, but always there to come south and hold 

 the islands in its grip when the fishery was over, and 

 those who came early and those who stayed late saw 

 enough of the wintry landscape to make them doubt 

 if life were possible under such conditions. 



Then the idea, not new to Englishmen, that colonies 

 should be started by criminals, was acted upon, and 

 the Muscovy Company procured the reprieve of a 

 batch of prisoners under sentence of death and landed 



