36 
DISCO. 
registering dial-plate, which Parry and others carried 
with them, to avert the disastrous consequences of a 
twelve hours' skip in their polar reckonings. 
We had now heen a month and a day out from New 
York. Our immediate destination was the Crown 
Prince Islands, more generally known by the misno- 
mer of the Whale Fish. This little group is situated 
in the Bay of Disco, thirty miles south of the island 
of that name. It is the largest of three similar groups, 
and seems to he part of a ledge extending from the 
southern cape of Disco to the Bunke Islands. Sir 
Edward Parry surveyed the entrance to them in 1821, 
and determined their position very carefully ; since 
which time, from the facilities which they offer for 
rating chronometers, they have become an established 
resort for whalers and expedition ships. Knowing 
nothing of their character or resources, we had looked 
forward to them with that sort of expectation which 
sea-tossed men attach to port. We were not sorry 
then, when, on the 24th of June, in the midst of the 
usual combination of cold rain and fogs, we sighted 
some low hilly rocks, about which the sea-swallow 
and kittiwake were whirling in endless rounds. 
As we entered the narrow passage which formed 
our anchorage, we looked in vain for indications of 
life. Water-worn gneiss, intersected by huge injec- 
tions of feldspar, made up the entire prospect. To the 
eye every thing was inorganic ruggedness. In one 
or two places, water distilled in drops over the rocks, 
and found its way to the sea ; but there was no veg- 
etation to define its course, not even the green con- 
ferva, that obscure vitality which follows water at 
home. It was only after landing that I became aware 
that these apparently destitute islands contributed 
