MEMOIR OF PENNANT. 51 



to the first discoverers must have been unspeak- 

 able ; the prospect is dreary, black (where not hid 

 with snow), and broken into a thousand precipices. 

 No sounds are heard but of the dashing of the 

 waves, the crashing collision of floating ice, the dis- 

 cordant notes of myriads of sea-fowl, the yelping of 

 arctic foxes, the snorting of the walruses, or the 

 roaring of the Polar bears. 



" This island was probably discovered by Stephen 

 Bennet in 1603, employed by Alderman Cherie, 

 in honour of whom the place was named. The an- 

 chorage near it is twenty and thirty fathoms. He 

 found there the tooth of a walrus, but saw none of 

 the animals, their season here being past. This was 

 the 17th of August. Encouraged by the hopes of 

 profit, Bennet made a second voyage next year, and 

 arrived at the island the 9th of July; when he 

 found the walruses lying huddled on one another, a 

 thousand in a heap. For \vant of experience he 

 killed only a few ; but in succeeding voyages, the 

 adventurers killed (in 1606), in six hours time, 

 seven or eight hundred; in 1608, nine hundred or 

 a thousand, in seven hours ; and in 1610, above 

 seven hundred. The profit, in the teeth, oil, and 

 skins, was very considerable ; but the slaughter made 

 among the animals frightened the survivors away, 

 so that the benefit of the business was lost, and the 

 island no more frequented. But from this defi- 

 ciency originated the commencement of the Whale 

 Fishery by the English." 



