96 VOYAGES OF WHALERS. Chap. VII. 



tables. Nothing could exceed their sincere good feeling and 

 kindness ; they offered to supply me with anything their 

 ships could afford. The account they give of last season 

 is as follows : the whalers reached Devil's Point, near 

 Melville Bay, as early as 21st May; southerly winds then 

 set in, and blew incessantly for six weeks, during all which 

 time they were closely beset, and the ships ' Gipsy ' and 

 ' Undaunted ' were crushed. When able to move, the 

 fleet returned southward along the pack-edge, which was 

 everywhere found to be impenetrable ; they sailed south- 

 ward of Disco, and about the middle of July the earliest 

 ships rounded the southern extremity of the middle ice in 

 lat. 68^°, and found no difficulty in their further passageto 

 Pond's Bay. Captain Walker says ships could not have 

 reached Lancaster Sound, as there was much ice north of 

 Pond's Bay which he thought extended quite across to 

 Melville Bay. 



The position of the ice last season was considered to 

 be most unusual ; the long prevalence of southerly winds 

 appeared to have separated the tail of the pack from the 

 main body, the former lying against the west land about 

 Cape Searle, whilst the latter was forced northward and 

 pressed closely into Melville Bay ; the ships sailed freely 

 between these two great divisions, and found the west 

 water unusually extensive. 



Had I been able to collect a sufficient number of sledge- 

 dogs at Godhavn last year, it was my intention to have 

 sailed across to the west side if possible, instead of pursuing 

 the usual route through Melville Bay ; but the opinions of 

 the captains of the lost whalers were in favour of a 

 " Melville Bay " passage, and the necessity for obtaining 

 dogs left me no choice as to whether I should proceed west, 

 or north to Proven and Upernivik; I have already recorded 

 what were my opinions at the time, so need only observe 



