Gane TE ONL (ASN? D: 
mér, and that the others had large rivers running out of them, almoft every 
one to the weft: that the Jndians, who crofled them annually, in their way 
to the north to trade for furs, were exceedingly well acquainted with them, 
and knew them to be frefh-water lakes ; and in particular ufed to fifh in them for 
Pikes, fifh notorioufly known never to frequent falt-water. 
I muft now take a blind unguided courfe along the /cy Sea. The charts give 
the land a turn to the fouth, in lat. 81. long. 22 from London. This is the moft 
northern extremity of the country called Greenland, if it reaches fo far ; but, be- 
yond the difcovery by Mr. Hearne, in lat. 72, the northern limits given in our 
charts appear to be merely conjectural. To the fouth, on the eaftern coaft, in 
1670, was feen Jand in lat. 79. Another part, in lat. 77. 30, called in the maps 
the land of Edam, was feen in 1655. ‘The inlet named Gacl-hamkes, in lat. 755 
was difcovered in 1664. A headland was obferved, in 1665, a degree further 
fouth : and in 1607 our celebrated Hud/on difcovered what he named Hold with 
Hope, in lat. 73 *. Excepting the laft, the reft of the attempts were made by 
the Danes, for the recovery of Old Greenland. Gael-hamées alone continues known 
to navigators, and is annually frequented by European Whale-fifhers, who ex- 
tend their bufinefs even to this coaft. It is reprefented as a great ftreight, twenty- 
five leagues wide, communicating with Baffin’s Bay. A fpecies of Whale, fre- 
quent in Davis’s Streights, and not found on this fide of the coafts, is often feen 
here harpooned with the ftone weapons of the inhabitants of the oppofite country ; 
which fifh muft have efcaped through this paflage+. The land to the north of Gael- 
hamkes is level, and not very high; and within five or fix leagues from it are 
foundings. That to the fouth is very lofty, and rifes inte peaks like that of 
Spitzbergen; and the fea oppofite to it is fathomlefs f. 
In lat. 71. long. 8. weft from London, is “fohn Mayen’s ifland, formerly much 
frequented by Whale-fifhers ; but thofe animals have now left the neighboring 
fea. The north end rifes into a prodigious mountain called Beerenberg, or the 
Bears, from its being the haunt of numbers ; but it is fo fteep as to be inacceffible 
to all human_creatures. The fea, within mufket-fhot from fhore, was fixty fa- 
thoms deep ; alittle farther the depth is paft the reach of the line |. 
Oppofite to Zceland begins the once-inhabited part of Old Greenland. A very 
deep ftreight opens a little oppofite to Suefelnas, and runs acrofs Greenland, near 
Facob’s Haven, into Davis’s Streights, fo as quite to infulate the country: it is 
* Purchas, iii. 568. + Voyages par de Pagés, ii, 222. T Same. \| Marten’s 
Spitzb. 186. 
now 
CLXXVIFE 
GREENLAND» 
Joun Mayen’s 
Isve. 
OLDGREENLAND. 
