PREFACE. iX 



on miscellaneous literature or science, form the 

 principal sources of information on the Natural 

 History of Greenland, published in the English 

 language. The tract by Henry Elking, al- 

 ready alluded to, entitled " A View of the 

 " Greenland Trade and Whale-Fishery, mth 

 " the National and Private Advantages there- 

 " of," is, I believe, our only original work on this 

 interesting subject. 



A considerable quantity of miscellaneous in- 

 formation, however, relating to Arctic Countries 

 and to the Whale-Fishery, is to be found inter- 

 spersed through the Collections of Voyages, &c. by 

 Hakluyt, Purchas, Churchill, Harris, Pickersgill, 

 Goldson, Forster, Miiller, Coxe, Pinkerton, Kerr, 

 Clarke, Barrow, Burney, &c. ; in the translations 

 of the Voyages or Narratives of Barentz, ISIar- 

 tens, M. Le Roy, &c. ; and in the original Voy- 

 ages of Ellis, James, Fox, Ross, and others, into 

 Baffin's or Hudson's Bay ; of Cook into Behring's 

 Strait ; and of Phipps towards the North Pole. 



The work now submitted to the Public is in a 

 great measure original, being chiefly derived from 

 researches carried on during seventeen voyages to 



