NARRATIVE OF A VOYAGE TO SriTZBERGEN. 443 



having particularly favourable winds and weather, 

 were not long detainad. We immediately struck 

 and killed our eighth fish. 



On the 14th we parted company with the Mars, 

 and proceeded alone to the southward ; when, after 

 a chace of sca eral hours, we captured a large whale. 

 On the 20th we killed another. In the course of 

 the week, between the 17th and 24th, three large 

 whales, wl ich would have afforded a fourth part of 

 a cargo, escaped us, by the unparalleled unskilfnl- 

 ness of our harpooners. 



We now penetrated the drift-ice in the latitude 

 of 78°, to the distance of seventy miles from the ex- 

 terior, where we met with several whales. One was 

 stnick and captured, and a second was shot by means 

 of the harpoon-gun; but owing to the want of prompt 

 assistance, the latter was lost. On the following 

 day, (27th of June,) another large fish fell beneath 

 our lances ; which, with a sucking fish we got on 

 the 25th, made our number thirteen, and our quan- 

 tity of oil about 125 tons. This was a larger cargo 

 than any ship had procured that we had yet met 

 with, excepting only one. On the 28th, the John 

 of Greenock, commanded by my brother-in-law, JMr 

 Jackson, joined us. 



After proceeding to the westward the greater 

 part of the 28th, we arrived at the borders of a com- 

 pact body of field-ice, consisting of immense sheets of 

 prodigious thickness. Here a number of ships were 



