PASSAGE FROM GREENLAND TO BRITAIN. 375 



have been diifted by the tide into Quendale Bay ; 

 a small inlet at the southern extremity of Shetland. 

 We stretched to the westward about three hours, and 

 then returned, supposing, from the state of the sea, 

 that the ship could not have fetched the land we 

 had before seen ; but the influence of the returning 

 tide had caught us, and to our surprise at day-light, 

 though the atmosphere was not foggy, no land was 

 in sight ! Soon afterwards, however, a certain hazi- 

 ness in the atmosphere dispersed, and Fair Island 

 made its appearance, bearing west, and Sumbrough 

 Head N. N. K. V2 miles distant. From a correct 

 estimation of the courses and distances steered, I 

 ascertained, that in the evening (8 to 10 P. m.) the 

 ebb-tide had carried us N. f E. pe?' compass, 11 

 miles in two hours ; and that during the night, the 

 flood-tide had taken us in the opposite direction 

 about 12 miles. Our situation at day-light, indeed, 

 was almost precisely the same as that where vv^e had 

 hauled the wind the night before ; and had we not 

 had certain evidence of having seen the land, we 

 should have supposed we had been deceived. 



Vessels returning from Greenland or Archangel, 

 are so very liable to make the coast of Norway, when 

 the navigators imagine themselves at the distance 

 of some degrees, that the circumstance is notorious. 

 An error of 5 or 6 degrees of longitude, in the 

 reckoning of a Greenland ship, is by no means un- 

 common, notwithstanding the coast of Spitzbergen 



