Ac:ouyit of a Voyage to Spttjhcrgcn. , 139 



There are many more iiiduftions of fails wliich imite ia 

 the eftablifliment of the general principle Dr. Mitchill has 

 invefiiofaied. Some of thefe have been publiihed in America, 

 and fome exift ftill in manufcript. The deiire of writing a 

 book feems never to have influenced him. Accordingly he 

 has generally condufted his difcuflions in the form of letters 

 to his friends and correfpondcnts : and even thefe he has 

 never collefted into a volume ; they lie fcattered about 

 in magazines and diilertatious where they were firft in- 

 ferted. There is a promife, however, of printing the whole 

 in the Medical Repofiton,', where they may in fucceffion 

 be laid before the learned world. In this immenfe in- 

 quiry, it is hoped, he will be allifted by the candour and 

 talents of thofc fcientlfic inquirers who are now-a-days 

 making fuch vail difcoveries in Europe. 



V. Account of a Voyage to Spitjhergen in the Year 1780. Bj 

 S. Bacsti^O M, M. D. Communicated hy the Author, 



TR. 



'WING received much gratification from a perufal of 

 your Magazine, I fend you a few particulars refpe6ling a 

 voyage which I made to Spitfbergen in the year 1780, ex- 

 tradled from a journal I kept at the time ; which you may 

 lay before your readers, if ,yGu think they can contribute 

 either to their information or amufemcnt. 



The Editor of the "1 I am, &c. 



Philofophical Magazine. J S. BACSTROM. 



A voYA(JE to Greenland, as it is called, though in fa£l 

 to the ifland of Spitfbergen, for the purpofe of killing the 

 black whale-fidi, is one of the hcalthied that can be under- 

 taken, and furniflies fo much curious matter for amufeiyent 

 to pcrfons of an inquifitive turn of mind, that cvei\ a fecond 

 fvill hardly fatisfy fuch, if they have been fortunate enough 



to 



