OLD WHALING DAYS. 187 



the steamer. Some thought she belonged to the fleet which 

 left us in Melville Bay, had got full and laid to, securing 

 boats, etc., for the passage home. Our captain was very 

 dejected, and said he was afraid we had made a mistake by 

 returning from Melville Bay. I felt certain it was an impos- 

 sibility for us to have got through it with our small steam 

 power. I considered that we had done perfectly right, and 

 that no fault could be attached to us for returning. The 

 appearance of the steamer puzzled us for some time, 

 until we saw two ladies on deck. It then occurred to 

 my mind that it was a new whaling steamer I had heard 

 of, called the Eric, which had been purchased by some 

 enterprising merchants, who had received a grant from the 

 Danish government to work a mine for black lead and other 

 minerals on the east coast of Greenland. The place where 

 they intended to land and erect their houses and plant had 

 not been visited for two hundred years or more. 



Eventually, we spoke the steamer, which proved 

 to be the Eric. I was sent to invite the gentlemen 

 and captain on board, who told us there was no 

 possibility of getting near the land on the Greenland coast, 

 so they were trying to get into Cape Hooper harbour. The 

 vessel was well supplied with everything necessary for the 

 expedition. There were some Danish miners on board, 

 also the manager and his wife, the doctor and his wife, and 

 other people connected with them. The captain of the Eric 

 said they had been here twelve days, and the ice was in the 

 same position as when they first came. We were at the floe 

 edge, which formed a deep bight a few miles to the south- 

 ward of Cape Hooper. It was an unbroken field of ice, 

 and there was no appearance of any water to the northward. 

 Our visitors stayed on board a short time, and gave us 

 the details of the venture. They were much disappointed in 

 not being able to get to their destination on the east coast ' 

 of Greenland, and now there was not the least prospect of 



