CH. XI] 
John Davis 
97 
and products of Greenland. Athletic sports and football 
matches were then organised. In long jumping the English 
beat the natives, but in wrestling matches the strangers 
found their match. A vocabulary was collected of the 
Eskimo language, and Davis wrote a very graphic account 
of these interesting people. 
The season was very unfavourable, there was much 
heavy pack, the ships were nearly beset after leaving 
Gilbert Sound, and the crews became despondent. Davis 
therefore made for the land again and reached it in 
The Voyages of John Davis. 
66° 30' N., at a place now known as Old Sukkertoppen. 
Here it was resolved that the Mermaid should return 
home, while Davis in the Moonshine continued the work 
of discovery with volunteers. On the 15th of August he 
crossed the strait, encountering much foul weather, in spite 
of which the gallant explorer surveyed the west coast of 
Davis Strait from the 67th to the 57th parallel. He found 
such enormous quantities of birds breeding on the cliffs 
that he was led to suppose that there must be a similar 
abundance of fish in the sea. He therefore hove the 
