208 
AVILLIAM SrORESBV, THE YuU^v'GER. 
einployiiient Avhicli for eleven year.s liad produced liiiii an average 
income of £800 per annum. As for many years afterwards his 
earnings from the clerical profession were less than a tithe of this, 
we may fairly assume that it was not with the prospect, or in the 
hope of emolument, that he exchanged tlie deck for the pidpit. 
Religion, as he conceived it, had now for a long time grown to be his 
chief interest and purpose in life, and it always remained so, although 
the scientific side of him refused to be suppressed. From "VVhithy he 
wrote to his sister, Mrs. Clark, in 1824, detailing to her with great 
carefulness the nature and practice of religious life, and he lays, as 
usual, the greatest possible stress on the observance of the sabbath. 
His first position in the ministry was that of Curate at Bessingby, 
near Bridlington. Here he devoted himself to religious work, attend- 
ing carefully to preaching, teaching, and visiting his people. But 
he also wrote many interesting papers on magnetism for the Edin- 
burgh Philosophical Journal, and one long article on the Polar 
Regions for the Edinburgh Encyclopa.'dia. 1827 was a notable year 
for him. The Institute of France elected him one of its correspond- 
ing members, and the Chaplaincy of the Mariners' Floating Church in 
Liverpool, the one thing most of all to his mind, was oftered to him 
and accepted. The Mariners' (Jhurch was a ship of war, fitted up 
for the purpose of accommodating over a thousand persons, the 
greater number of those who attended of course being sailors. It was 
in this Church that Rammohun Roy first attended divine worship in 
England. Very interesting to note is the homely, yet admirable and 
effective way in which, while minister of the Mariners' Church at 
Liverpool, Mr. Scoresby used the language of nautical men for the 
purpose of influencing the minds of the sailors in the direction of 
religion. 
At the first meeting of the British Association for the advance- 
ment of science, which was held at York, on the 27 th February, 1831, 
Mr. Scoresby was elected to the sub-committee of the Section of 
Mathematical and Physical Science, and to tlie work of that associa- 
tion, especially in enquiries relating to magnetism, he was faithful for 
the rest of his life. 
He married for a second time in June, 1828, his wife being 
Elizabeth Fitzgerald, an Irish lady. It soon became apparent that 
