347 
East Coast of West Greenland. 
stance in the open air stuck to it ; and the tongue brought into con- 
tact with the same, adhered so firmly that it could not be removed 
without the loss of the skin. Some of the sailors suffered consider- 
ably from partial frost-bites. The cooper had his nose frozen, and 
was obliged to submit to a severe friction with snow ; and the boat- 
swain almost lost his hearing.” P. 43, 44. 
On the same day several parhelia or mock suns were seen. 
The nautical operations of this day were of the most difficult 
kind which the whale-fishers have to encounter, and in which 
numbers of ships are annually damaged. The following passage 
affords abundant proof of the great importance of the Greenland 
fishery, in forming active, ready, and experienced seamen. 
ie Most of the masses of drift-ice, among which we had to force a 
passage, were at least twenty times the weight of the ship, and as 
hard as some kinds of marble ; a violent shock against some of them 
might have been fatal. But the difficulties and intricacies of such 
situations, affording exercise for the highest possible exertion of 
nautical skill, are capable of yielding, to the person who has the 
management of a ship, under such circumstances, a degree of en- 
joyment, which it would be difficult for navigators, accustomed to 
mere common-place operations, duly to appreciate. The ordinary 
management of a ship, under a strong gale, and with great velocity, 
exhibits evolutions of considerable elegance ; but these cannot be 
comparable with the navigation in the intricacies of floating-ice, 
where the evolutions are frequent, and perpetually varying, — where 
manoeuvres are to be accomplished, that extend to the very limits of 
possibility, — and where a degree of hazard attaches to some of the 
operations, which would render a mistake of the helm, or a miscal- 
culation of the powers of the ship, irremediable and destructive.’ 1 ’ 
P. 46, 47. 
On May 1 6th they got beset in the ice ; and this period of 
leisure afforded our author an opportunity of carrying into ef- 
fect some magnetical experiments, of which an interesting ac- 
count is given, from page 52 to 60 
On Monday, the 20th, the ice began to move ; and, after six- 
teen hours constant exertion, the ship succeeded in reaching a 
free and open navigation. Having met with little success in 
fishing in these high latitudes, they now sailed southward, to 
what is called the West Land Fishing-Ground , extending from 
Lat. il° downwards, where, within these last three or four years, 
the only good cargoes had been obtained. On the 23d May 
they reached Lat. 74° 43' N., being the parallel where they pro- 
We are reluctantly compelled to postpone to next Number, a full account of 
all Captain Scoresby’s Magnetical Experiments, and of his Magnelimeter and 
Chronometrical Compass. 
