264 



HISTORY OF THE SEA, 



which lie had taken at sea." On the 26th of August, Frobisher 

 weighed anchor and started to return to England, the snow lying 

 a foot deep upon the decks. He arrived at Yarmouth on the 

 1st of October. 



One of Frobisher's sailors had brought with him a bit of 

 shining black stone, which, upon examination, was found to 

 yield an infinitesimal quantity of gold. The Northwest Passage 

 became now a matter of secondary interest, the mines of Fro- 

 bisher's Strait promising a more speedy and abundant return. 

 The society he had formed determined to send him out anew, in 

 vessels better equipped and provisioned for a longer period. He 

 left Blackwall on the 26th of May, 1577, in her Majesty's ship 

 Aide, of one hundred and eighty tons, followed by the Gabriel and 

 Michael, his ostensible object being to discover " America to be 

 an island environed with the sea, wherethrough our merchants 

 may have course and recourse with their merchandise, from 

 these our northernmost parts of Europe to those oriental coasts 

 of Asia, to their no little commodity and profit that do or shall 

 frequent the same." The fleet passed the Orkneys on the 8th 

 of June. 



For a month they sailed to the westward, the season of the 

 year being that when, in those latitudes, a bright twilight takes 

 the place of the light of day during the few hours that the sun 

 is below the horizon; so that the crew had "the fruition of their 

 books and other pleasures, — a thing of no small moment to such 

 as wander in unknown seas and long navigations, especially when 

 both the winds and raging surges do pass their common and 

 wonted course." Throughout the voyage they met huge fir- 

 trees, which they supposed to have been uprooted by the winds, 

 driven into the sea by floods, and borne away by the currents. 



On the 4th of July they made the coast of Greenland. The 

 chronicler of this voyage, who had doubtless lately visited tro- 

 pical latitudes, remarks that here, "in place of odoriferous and 

 fragrant smells of sweet gums and pleasant notes of musical 



