OLD WHALING DAYS. 63 



passage home after a good voyage, and with his crew in 

 high spirits. 



The first voyage I made after being out of my 

 apprenticeship was as loose harpooner of the brig Anne, 

 and' it proved to be a most unsuccessful one. Our first 

 trouble was the loss of a young Shetlandman, who died 

 of consumption, and was buried at sea with the usual 

 solemn formalities. The following day a gale of wind 

 carried away our maintopmast, which lost us the run of a 

 fine wind up the Straits, being thus detained twenty-four 

 hours to the eastward of Cape Farewell, and the wind 

 changing we had to beat about three weeks in order to 

 double it, and thereby losing the best part of the east side 

 fishery. Ships generally gave the Cape a wide berth, 

 sometimes ninety or one hundred miles, on account of the 

 heavy ice which drifts from the west coast of Greenland and 

 the east coast of Davis's Straits, and meet, forming a pack or 

 streams sometimes extending a long way south, also numer- 

 ous icebergs which ground off there, making it dangerous 

 to approach nearer in the early part of the year. Icebergs are 

 beautiful when the sun shines upon them, and light up their 

 massive forms. We see them imbued with all the colours 

 of the rainbow, and their appearance varies to a most sur- 

 prising extent. Some are wall-shaped, with flat tops, others 

 rounded, and many-pinnacled like church spires and 

 Turkish mosques. Some people think that icebergs form 

 in the sea, but it is not so ; they break off in massive pieces 

 from the foot of the glaciers which are so numerous on the 

 east side of Davis's Straits and Baffin's Bay. Those glaciers 

 I consider to be one of the greatest wonders of the world. 

 Terror and beauty combine in this place of desolation. 

 Many a good ship has never been heard of since crossing 

 the Banks of Newfoundland, but if those bergs could speak 

 they would solve the mystery. 



Of this voyage it is needless to make much comment. On 



