DANGERS OF THE EISHEIIY.— ANECDOTES. 343 



Two harpooners who sailed with me, to the 

 fishery in the year 1814, were engaged, at a 

 former i period, in the capture of a whale ^t 

 Davis' Straits, in the service of the ship James, 

 when the boat from which the fish was struck, was 

 dragged by the line under an overhanging precipice 

 of a huge ice-berg. It remained some time sta- 

 tionary, and then was again withdrawn to a small 

 distance, when a mass immediately fell from the 

 summit, which, had they remained in their original 

 position, must have crushed the boat to pieces, and 

 buried the crew in the deep. Their escape was in- 

 deed so happy and so striking, that they did not 

 scruple to designate it as providential ; and the dan- 

 ger was yet so near, that the waves produced by the 

 concussion of the ice on the water, passed, in consi- 

 derable sprays, over the boat. 



Dangers arising frmi Ice, when JBoats are en- 

 closed and beset, and their Ct^ervs thus prevented 

 from joining their Ships. — June 17th 1813, 

 several Greenland fishing ships penetrated the ice 

 into an enticing opening, in which a number of 

 whales were sporting in fancied security. The 

 John, of Greenock, Neptune, of Aberdeen, and Earl 

 Percy, of Kirkcaldy, v/ere immediately, to appear- 

 ance, successful. The crew of the John, in a short 

 time, killed several fish ; the people of the Neptune 

 killed one, and struck a second ; and the crew of th^ 



