174 DISCOVERIES OF IGO6. 



westerly current. On the 25th they had sight 

 of Greenland, about ten leagues to the south of 

 Queen Anne's Cape, the Frost having on the 

 preceding day been separated from the Lion and 

 the Gilliflower. They put into Cunnmgham's 

 liord, where, it seems, they had found a silver 

 mine the year before, of which ore they had 

 sworn to his INlajesty to bring home a sufficient 

 quantity ; accordingly " they all landed to see the 

 silver myne, where," says Hall, " it was decreed that 

 we should take in as much thereof as we could." 

 This, in fact, appears to have been the grand object 

 of the extensive equipment furnished by the King 

 of Denmark : it was the discovery of gold and 

 silver, and not of the lost colonies, that actuated 

 the framers of an expedition on a scale unneces- 

 sarily large for the purposes of scientific disco- 

 very ; for in fact no search nor even mention is 

 made either of a north-west passage or of the 

 old colonies of Greenland. They rowed in their 

 boats up the sound, passing "many green and 

 pleasant islands," and after some days came to the 

 mouth of a river which they named after the 

 pilot of the Eagle, Fos river ; the latitude of 

 which is 66° 25'. On the bank of this river was 

 situated the winter village of the natives, consist- 

 ing of about forty houses " builded with whales' 

 bones, the balkes being of whales' ribbes ; the 

 tops were covered with earth, and they had certaine 

 vaults or sellers under the earth foure square, 

 about two yards deepe in the ground." In the 



