MEMOIR OF PENNANT. 
51 
to the first discoverers must have been unspeak- 
able ; the prospect is di'eary, black (where not hid 
with snow), and broken into a thousand precipices. 
No sounds are heard but of the dashing of the 
waves, the crashing collision of floating ice, the dis- 
cordant notes of myriads of sea-fowl, the yelping of 
arctic foxes, the snorting of the walruses, or the 
roaring of the Polar bears. 
“ This island was probably discovered by Stephen 
Bennet in 1603, employed by Alderman Cherie, 
in honour of whom the place was named. Tlie an- 
chorage near it is twenty and thirty fathoms. He 
found there the tooth of a walrus, but saw none of 
the animals, their season here being past. This was 
the 17 th of August. Encouraged by the hopes of 
profit, Bennet made a second voyage next year, and 
arrived at the island the 9th of July; when he 
found the walruses lying huddled on one another, a 
thousand in a heap. For want of experience he 
killed only a few; but in succeeding voyages, the 
adventurers killed (in 1606), in six hours time, 
seven or eight hundred; in 1608, nine hundred or 
a thousand, in seven hours; and in 1610, above 
seven hundred. The profit, in the teeth, oil, and 
skins, was very considerable ; but the slaughter made 
among the animals frightened the survivors away, 
so that the benefit of the busine.ss w'as lost, and the 
island no more frequented. But from this defi- 
ciency originated the commencement of the Whale 
Fishery by the English.” 
