168 ACCOUNT OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 



ing fleet, and voluntarily offered themselves to the 

 " Greenland Company," for trying the practicabi- 

 lity of living in the winter, and establishing a co- 

 lony in this island. This scheme, masked under the 

 pretence of determining the true condition of the 

 country in winter ; " concerning the nights there, 

 and other curious observations, disputed among 

 astronomers," was doubtless intended as a colonizing 

 experiment, with a view of facilitating the capture 

 of whales, and enhancing the value of the fishery to 

 the adventurers. Their journal, which is given at 

 some length in Churchill's " Collection of Voyages 

 and Travels *," gives a better description of the 

 state of the wind and weather, from the 26th of 

 August to the 31st of April following, than almost 

 any other account of observations, made in winter, 

 in so high a latitude, that has yet been published. 

 As such, I have extracted some particulars out of 

 each day's remarks, and have given them, in a ta- 

 bidar form, in the Appendix, No. VII. This little 

 party survived the severities of the winter, without 

 much hazard of their lives, until the scurvy began 

 to make its appearance among them. The requisite 

 supply of fresh provisions not having been met 

 with, its ravages were very rapid. One of the par- 

 ty died on the l6th of April ; and all the rest shar- 



* Vol. ii. p. 367,-378. 



